State of Disunion
by TheRoguePhilosopher
Summary: Dr. Cosima Niehaus, head of the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States did not only dislike Delphine Cormier, she loathed her. A deep-seeded, seething visceral feeling surfaced even in hearing the blonde's name. Unfortunately, she would be hearing the name a lot while sharing a room with her for a global environmental summit.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – State of Disunion

Cosima Niehaus rarely paid attention when her assistant blabbered on and on about everything she had already heard about from every news station and newspaper, turning on three televisions and opening the door to her condo to retrieve said papers at promptly 5 AM daily, shortly after her alarm went off.

She knew she had to stay on top of the environmental policies of not only surrounding countries, but every country she could possibly be sent to when required to act as a scientific ambassador, sometimes requiring long trips abroad, only to come back to stacks of reports from each state in America. Three years earlier, Dr. Niehaus had been surprised when she was appointed to head the Environmental Protection Agency, and knew that enough people didn't want her in the position that she had to stay on top of her game.

Still, the assistants she had were usually fresh out of college, and needed something to do to make them feel like more than the glorified assistants they were. To be fair, her current assistant was worlds above her last, even doubling as security detail, but she still allowed him the pleasure of telling her everything she already knew.

"The first day of the itinerary was already leaked to the press, so expect everything that involved walking tours to be cancelled from the camera mob." Tony started, pausing for the obligatory nod, knowing that Dr. Niehaus was only somewhat listening.

* * *

Tony was not hired because he had the best resume. Tony had been hired because she put her assistants through a trap of an interview. Dr. Niehaus was known for some eccentricities, but her colleagues had no idea to what extent.

For interview day, she put on a hideous outfit that she referred to has her "weed-them-out" suit. It was a pink pattern modeled after a former eye sore of a couch that her grandmother used to have, complete with stains and fuzz. She topped it off with a pink ladies hat with dried, crumbling flowers pinned to the top, and carried in a stuffed Chihuahua for a lapdog. Dr. Niehaus did draw the line at getting a real dog, since she only needed something to pet on her lap for screening potential assistants.

She went through interview after interview of the top agency candidates, some with degrees in political science, government, environmental studies, all with backgrounds in martial arts who had passed a civil service exam. They were the best of the best, and all dreadfully boring, feeding her their polite, pre-screened answers, staring at her interview outfit in horror but never commenting.

That was, until Tony. He clearly couldn't focus on the questions with what was presented in front of him as acceptable office wear. Halfway through the interview, Cosima used her signature question, that every other interviewee answered with a polite, "No, Ma'am".

"Is something wrong, candidate?" She asked, stroking the clearly fake puppy in her lap.

"Well, yeah…I mean, are you having a rough day or something, lady?" Tony answered, his thoughts on the interview outfit clearly written across his face. "I mean, you can't possibly tell me you _like_ wearing that. And is that a stuffed dog? Don't like cleaning up crap or something?"

Cosima smirked, reviewing Tony's file. A former juvenile delinquent, he had finished high school through a GED program as an adult, eventually becoming a police officer, and then FBI, investigating environmental contamination cases. Even more pleasing, he was exactly what she was looking for in someone who would be spending ten hours a day with her, consulting on internal affairs: he was bluntly honest.

"You're hired."

* * *

"I know." Cosima answered again, not bothering to look up from the study she was skimming with a high lighter, as Tony went on and on about what was on the news that morning, and the schedule for the rest of the day.

"Your flight to Toronto leaves in five hours, so after the press conference we're taking you straight to the airport. And the German Chancellor can't make it due to food poisoning."

"I know." Cosima had to frown at that one. Only a handful of her friends were going to make the summit, but she knew an informal gathering in Toronto of lawmakers and scientists who made no promises that any discussions would translate to any sorts of treaties or policy changes would be passed on by more than a few leaders, hence why the President of the United States was sending Ms. Neihaus, head of the Environmental Protection Agency rather than send an actual lawmaker.

Still, Cosima like these professional conferences. Usually the other scientists who had any sort of policy influence brought their studies with them to share before they were published publically. It was a free open dialogue between government officials and scientists, and she knew that even if it wasn't officially about policymaking, it certainly could influence things down the road.

"That also means you were assigned a new council partner…" Tony trailed off, hoping not to have to fill Cosima in on the details, since she seemed to already know everything he had to say anyway. Cosima was already aware that when two community "ambassadors of science" were paired together, it also meant sharing a hotel room. Tony thought it was a fancy way of saying, "We're trying not to go broke spending on this conference".

"I assume they're going to shove me with someone from a country that RSVP'd late, since when I last checked, the list was an even number."

Tony didn't respond right away, a move that was highly unusual for him. Cosima paused for the smart-ass quip that never came.

"What is it?" She asked, finally looking up from the report.

"They have someone to pair you with, but you're not going to like it and it's too late to back out."

"Spit it out, Tony. It's a few hours a day and a few nights in a hotel room. It's not like they are sewing us together for the entire week-"

"It's Delphine Cormier, representing France."

"Absolutely not. No."

* * *

"You had better be kidding me. A joke. A sick joke, because if you value your life, you will withdraw the suggestion that I am spending a week paired with Cosima Niehaus." Delphine wasn't aware that she was threatening her assistant, Evan, with a butter knife instead of something actually threatening, but the tone of voice more than made up for it.

"Madame Cormier-"

"Mademoiselle, you mean. Unless you are also implying I am old." Delphine was showing no signs of surrendering the butter knife, continuing to waive it in the man's face.

"My mistake. It's not like there were a lot of choices. Russia and China are both too angry at North America and the European Union to send delegates, although we suspect China will be sending spies but we're not sure through which representative. There weren't a lot of options."

"Well, you tell them no. You call the committee back and let them know that France also does not need to send a representative."

"It's too late for that and you know it." Evan said, keeping his hands up in surrender until the butter knife was returned to the table.

* * *

Tony was thinking that briefing Dr. Neihaus on her new partner before a press conference was a bad idea.

It had been a very, very bad idea. He began thinking that he should have told her on the plane after take off so she couldn't try to escape.

Cosima had been storming around her office, listing the people who had "set her up", and who would pay for the pairing, and in general stomping and slamming six hundred page reports in more of a tantrum than Tony had yet to witness. She had gone through everything from a foreign government sabotage to "that guy at the last conference who kept drooling and giggling".

It was worse than when a fringe science group had demanded to speak with Dr. Neihaus, pushing Tony to schedule them, only to announce that Global Warming was due to a secret malicious bacteria implanted in Pop Tarts, and demanded that the government shut down all Pop Tart production immediately or they were staging a sit in at the White House.

After the tantrum that followed that group being scheduled for a full hour, as Tony had clearly not been screening visitors properly, Dr. Niehaus ordered three hundred boxes of Pop Tarts so the office could keep a constant supply, even going so far as to give a box as a parting gift to other officials, only fueling the internet rumors that the government was indeed sabotaging the environment by encouraging Pop Tart production. Of course, Dr. Niehaus spent the next week throwing the tarts at Tony's head, reminding him to screen the special interest groups, and reminding him _exactly_ where a Pop Tart could be shoved to be "warmed up" in the human body.

However, this tantrum was beyond anything Tony had witnessed thus far. Every time it looked as though she was finally tiring herself out, she found another person/country/organization to blame that could be trying to sabotage her career by pairing her with Dr. Cormier.

"Why? Why do you hate her so much? Is it the French nuclear energy situation?" Tony asked, feeling as though he had no choice but to mitigate the insanity.

"No, Tony. It is not the French. Nuclear. Energy. Situation." Cosima said, punctuating her rant and lowering her voice in a way that Tony found more frightening.

"What's the problem then?"

"The problem is that Delphine Cormier is an asshole."

* * *

Evan's face stayed in its stunned positioning, eyebrows raised, mouth open, having the sense not to say anything.

He had never heard such a string of curse words fly out of someone's mouth so seamlessly and aggressively. Further, he had never actually heard one come from Delphine. He tried to actively think back to every piece of information he had ever heard about the American, wondering if the woman had at some point bombed their country and he failed to commit the event to memory.

"Not just an asshole, Cosima Neihaus is a pompous asshole. An arrogant, pompous, fucking full of herself, goddamned…Oh and don't think she won't rub her Ph.D. in your face, because her arrogance is what fuels her in the morning instead of breakfast, that shit fucker fuck faced-"

Evan quickly realized that if Delphine was going to make her flight, he would have to pack her things for her, as she was so far down the hatred rabbit hole that throwing down a rope would only make it halfway.

* * *

Cosima had indeed finally tired herself out, ranting right up until the moment she was in front of the cameras, promoting the World Environment Summit in front of two dozen news cameras, and then continuing as soon as she was off stage.

"See? No sweat. Ten minute press briefing. Do you know who would sweat it? Delphine Cormier. Cormier wouldn't be able to handle the cameras; she always has someone else write her speeches for her. I bet she sweats buckets, and then has her little French elves wipe her ass like the spoiled fucking princess that she thinks she is."

Tony sighed. This was the first time in the three years they had been working together that he regretted booking himself a first class ticket to sit with Cosima.

Ever the attentive assistant, Tony took out his cell phone to call the airline and make sure the flight would have liquor on board.

* * *

"Oh Evan, thank you for packing, by the way. I have a lot on my mind." Delphine said, sitting at the airport gate.

"I can see that." Evan said, relaxing into his chair. He did appreciate that Delphine always thanked him for his help, even if it was the tiniest thing. From what he had heard from his friends who were also high-end assistants, their bosses were not so appreciative, or personable.

"I hope you packed that extra, extra large ski cap that I have that's too big."

"Why would I pack a hat that I know is too big for you? You never wear it. And the color is hideous."

"Because we might need something to contain how big Cosima's head is."

Evan rolled his eyes.

"I can see it's going to be a long week."

* * *

"Yes, Mister President, I am honored to represent America at the Summit, but there is an issue that needs consideration before I get onto that plane."

Tony tried not to eavesdrop when Cosima was on the phone, but knowing that Cosima had just called the President to try to talk her way out of an international conference packed with high end media because 'my partner is a meanie and I'm not sitting with her'…well, Tony couldn't help himself.

He kept the door to Cosima's office that joined his adjacent office cracked just a tad, struggling to inch his chair over to hear more of the conversation.

"No, nothing like that, Sir. The problem is…she knows who—what I am. We went to the academy together. Yes Sir, _that _academy."

Tony's eyebrows raised. This was going to be an interesting trip indeed.


	2. Remember When?

Chapter 2

_Switzerland – 4 Years Earlier_

Cosima picked up her pamphlet from orientation, noting the fine print on the bottom instructing her that nothing, including the pamphlet itself, was to leave the compound at the end of the month.

"Figures. I'm surprised they didn't burn it after I read it." She said to no one in particular.

Cosima had gotten to her room before her assigned roommate, so she went ahead and claimed the bed farther from the window, choosing to secure her warmth during the Swiss winter season over having a polite exchange where she would have to negotiate for the far bed.

The rock star of California state policy change, Cosima Niehaus, had indeed agreed to come for a month willingly. They were covering her ass back at the state Environmental Crisis committee by saying that Representative Niehaus was spending a month with a dying grandmother in Germany.

In actuality, Cosima was now at The Academy in Switzerland, in a situation that she only accepted out of pure curiosity, thinking of it purely as a "what if" opportunity, not a definite set-in-stone agreement to anything.

"Bonjour!" Cosima jumped at the unfamiliar voice, spinning around quickly to find a tall, leggy blonde standing in her bedroom. Usually, this type of vision only occurred in a Bloody Mary induced coma.

Cosima checked the pamphlet quickly.

_Damn. No alcohol allowed. _

"Umm, so you could knock you know." Cosima stuttered out.

"Well, this is also my room, so no, I would not be knocking before walking into my own room."

"It's not just your room. I could have been naked."

Cosima had not had a roommate since undergrad in college, and after the last one five years ago had earned the nickname "sticky" after Cosima found she was living with a sex addict who had a chronic masturbation problem eventually leading to carpal tunnel syndrome, she was not looking forward to this experience.

Her previous roommate had not been much better. A schizophrenic who had gone off her medication, she learned exactly what it was like to live with a Ukranian exchange student who thought that she was somehow the special light of God, and could be the only person alive to discern between who was righteous and saved, and who was an abomination. Needless to say, she had determined that Cosima was an abomination, ultimately leading to trying to trap Cosima in a fishnet and drag her to who knows where before being stopped in the hallway by a T.A.

Then, there was the party animal, the sleep talker, the food stealer, the super-over sexer who brought home someone to sleep with every night, kicking Cosima out of the room between the hours of 2 and 4 AM, and ultimately, the neat-freak who demanded that every time Cosima use a tissue that it be brought out to the dumpster for fear of the germs festering inside of a garbage can. That was the point where Cosima had decided she needed to live alone, but not before leaving her opponent's bed full of used tissues, just to hear the reaction and smirk in satisfaction.

She had made up her mind that she was going to have to lay down the law for whoever this roommate ended up being. She would secure her alpha status as quickly as possible.

"Do you tend to wander around outside of the bathroom naked, Ms. Nye-House?"

"It's Niehaus, as in _Doctor_ Niehaus. And I guess now that I know I'm sharing a room with a creeper, I'll make sure I'm wearing layers in the bedroom at all times."

Delphine put her hands up in surrender immediately.

"Alright, I can see I've offended you in some way. I apologize. I don't want us to get off on the wrong foot. I'm Delphine Cormier." Delphine extended a hand, feeling the smaller woman accept the gesture by squeezing just a bit harder than would be polite.

"_Doctor_ Cosima Niehaus." The woman with the glasses answered. She was not dealing with another germ-a-phobe. She would assert herself, firmly. She would make it know that she was not dependent on the approval of others, that she was worth having ownership over her living space, and all of those other things her therapist had said.

"I'm hoping we can start over. I am with the French delegation."

"Yeah, I got that from 'Bonjour'." Cosima spat out, crossing her arms while sizing up the woman. _I can handle you, blondie. No sweat._

She was exceptionally beautiful. Not an imperfection to be found. Cosima also knew that would mean she would have to keep her distance. Point number 6 from their orientation had been, "Never sleep with a stranger. You never know if you're going to fall for the enemy, or who the enemy may be."

Delphine felt something about the smaller woman immediately. She felt strange about apologizing to someone so quickly after having done nothing wrong. The way Delphine was raised, one never apologized unless it was for appeasing a friendly family or nation to keep political ties. But something about the woman with the eyes that still sparkled through her annoyance made Delphine want her to like her.

It was strange, really. Usually Delphine was attracted to other blondes. It didn't matter if she was shorter or taller, but almost always blonde, and usually…well, Delphine Cormier was somewhat of a connoisseur of breasts, and she preferred large ones. In the realm of pure objectification, Delphine was a breast-gal, one hundred percent.

The woman before her was almost the opposite of what usually sparked her attraction. She felt the familiar pull, wanting to engage even the abrasiveness. After all, an argument was better than not talking to her at all.

"Ahh, you speak French, then?" Delphine challenged, her mouth forming a smirk.

Cosima just rolled her eyes.

_Not today, sweetheart. I'm the alpha in this living situation. _

"Here's an idea. I already chose my bed. I'm heading down to the dining facilities. While I'm gone, I'm trusting you aren't going to try to get a jump on assignment and rifle through my things."

"I would do no such thing." Delphine said, still smirking at the woman's ridiculousness.

As soon as she heard the door shut, of course, she had to take a peek in Cosima's luggage.

* * *

_Present day_

Delphine paused for a moment at the door of the hotel room.

She had no way of knowing if Cosima was on the other side of the door. She had no way of knowing if the American had arrived before her, not having checked the flights. She raised her had up for a moment, contemplating knocking.

Delphine Cormier stood in front of the door, with a hand up in a fist, frozen for her internal monologue.

_You don't need to knock, Delphine. It's your room too. But you already know how Cosima reacts to that…and she could be naked. No need to knock. Although it will make her angry, but she's sort of cute when she's irritated, so…_

Delphine made the decision then to go ahead and use her keycard, throwing the door open in a grand fashion, only to find Cosima's luggage neatly tucked on the bed farthest away from the window with no sign of Cosima in sight.

The bed left for her, however, was clearly left untouched.

Delphine couldn't tell if she was disappointed or relieved. She was somewhat relieved that she wouldn't be starting a week of many packed activities with an argument, but something about even fighting with the dark haired, dreadlocked woman was electrifying. It was almost exciting, in a sick way that made no sense.

Delphine Cormier was a child of French nobility; she was the product of a somewhat arranged marriage between to aristocratic families. She was wealthy, and more than aware that many thought her position in government was through her family pulling strings, not through her own hard work and dedication. If she were in her family's presence, she would never be caught dead arguing with another political figure, particularly one as rude and crass as Dr. Niehaus. But something about the carefree, "I don't give a shit what anyone thinks of me" attitude that Cosima carried continued to draw her to the fight, the all out, no holds barred arguments that were inevitable when in the same room.

* * *

"Alright, does everyone remember the rules from last time?" Cosima asked, as she sat with her friends at the meet-and-greet mixer the first night of the Summit. Truthfully, Cosima was just happy to have other drinking friends instead of having to smuggle a flask into Presidential addresses by herself.

The drinking game, they had all learned at the signing of the renewed Non-Pollution Cooperation Treaty a year earlier, was the only way to get through the next three hours of speeches, and the disappointing buffet where Cosima already knew the only vegetarian option would be some sort of pasta and the sad, overly-marinated vegetable medley, undoubtedly put together by the classically trained chef who resented having to provide something that didn't begin life openly roaming about and shitting in an open field.

"Let's see, I remember something about drinking every time the speaker mentions a nation that chose not to participate, and that's quite the list for this particular conference." Governor General Alison Hendrix had her two cosmos lined up in front of her, resolved not to break the seal until her second round of double-fisting. She was, even thought double-fisting, resolved to win like a lady, adding a couple of shots of low-calorie vanilla vodka to her reserve.

"Nicely done, Hendrix. I also seem to remember we drink whenever someone mentions 'recycling', 'nuclear energy', and 'deforestation'. I say we skip the child's plan and just each down a drink when a new speaker opens his mouth at all." Baronness Rachel Duncan had a reputation for being a cold-hearted, conservative bitch who wanted nothing more than to see the monarchy restored, but the people she represented had little idea of just what a party animal she could become under the right circumstances. In fact, if Rachel Duncan's conference activities had become known, she would instantly become the scandal of the House of Lords, with her assistant only existing to temper that very reality.

Cosima sat with two beers and four shots in front of her, saving the shots for the big guns of the game, which was whenever anyone referenced your own country directly. She figured, considering her own nation had rejected outlawing genetically modified foods, the spread she had before her would barely last an hour.

And when she returned to the room utterly wasted and felt the contents of her stomach making their presence known, she would have no problem making sure to aim for the bed closest to the window.

"I see you saved me a seat." Delphine said, slipping into the chair directly across from Cosima.

The look on Dr. Niehaus' face was exactly what Governor General Hendrix had expected, but that hadn't stopped her from inviting the French attorney with more background in international environmental law than all of the others had combined to be at her table for the evening. And there was also the issue that Allison really like being friends with Delphine and was no longer willing to pretend she wasn't when Cosima was around.

"Oh this is going to be a good night." Rachel grinned, starting on her beverage before the speeches even began. Cosima's face, when it contorted into the perfect mix of distain and needing to appear neutral for public appearances sake, was Rachel Duncan's very favorite form of entertainment.

* * *

Evan sat with is single glass of red wine across from Tony, drinking a Sprite.

The two knew given their positions, which somewhat involved keeping their bosses safe, meant they couldn't participate in Dr. Niehaus' now famous conference drinking game, but Tony was still surprised that Evan was drinking at all.

"I guess you're planning on Cormier making it upstairs by herself okay." He said plainly, eyeing the wine in front of Evan.

"What do you mean?" Evan asked. He looked up confused, until he saw Tony's line of sight at his glass of wine, causing him to chuckle. "Ahhh that, _Mon Ami_. I promise you, I have a glass of wine with both lunch and dinner every day, and in France they are both much stronger than this. Taste it." Evan said, holding the glass up to Tony.

"I can't. I'm her only security detail. Canada is a friendly country, we didn't feel the need to bring a full team." Tony said, trying to explain that his polite declination had nothing to do with Evan and everything to do with how seriously he took his job.

"That would matter if this wasn't a step away from grape juice. In my country, this is what we give to children to ease them into wine." Tony laughed, but still shook his head.

"Tell you want. You try mine, and I'll try yours." Tony said, smirking.

"No, no, no, that's not necessary. I have no desire to pump my body full of corn syrup and sugar and who knows what else." Evan said, shaking his hand in front of the Sprite.

"Baby." Tony said, sipping his carbonated beverage.

"Says the man who cannot handle a sip of wine."

"Sorry I'm late." Sarah said before sitting with the two, only glancing back for a split second to check on Rachel.

* * *

Something about Cosima's inherent need to cause complete and utter chaos had caused the original "do a shot" rule whenever one's home country was mentioned during a welcome speech. It was a rule that she had put in place during the last conference, when she wanted to be drunk before having to deal with Delphine in a sub-committee meeting.

However, this was getting ridiculous.

Canada had discussed no less that five times, to the point where Governor General Hendrix had kicked off her shoes under the table and was using the end of the actual tablecloth as a napkin after having to down five shots of vodka on top of her regular drinks.

Cosima and Delphine were both fairing just fine, each belonging to a country where the only mentioned of them individually was during the initial welcome and list of nations. Baronness Duncan technically belonged to the "one shot" group as well, but had chosen to go toe-to-toe with Alison just to prove that she could.

Delphine had been studying the woman who had become her arch-nemesis over the last few years. Sure, they had worked together on a number of national agreements and international studies, but at every point she was aware of Cosima's distain for her, and also for the way she had a growing fondness for the banter.

She watched the way Cosima was naturally at ease with anyone who she spoke to, charming anyone who stopped at the table to say hello. She was charismatic, she could give her that. But she also had a natural beauty in the way she talked, the way she laughed, the way she did any little thing such as picking up a wine glass. She was also, from what Delphine could see, still incredibly full of herself.

She wanted how Cosima's hands cradled her drink, remembering the last time she had felt those hands on her body, what felt like ages ago. She also knew it was an event she could not ever speak of, imagining how Cosima would react. Delphine was promptly jogged out of her daydream trip to a secret memory, a memory only shared by two at the table.

"And we should also remember," Started the representative from Italy, " that we should all thank the great nation of Canada for hosting us for this opportunity to hold hands across waters, and ensure that our planet is sustained and thriving for generations to come!"

"Oh shit." Alison said, taking another shot. Hendrix had most certainly _not_ counted on every country thanking Canada for their hospitality in their speeches.

The table officially had no room for any more drinks, as there was not going to be service to clear the tables of any dishes until after the speeches in preparation for dinner.

_Dinner_. Alison thought. _That thing I haven't eaten yet._

"I think we should call off the game. We've had our fun." Delphine offered after visually assessing Alison and Rachel.

Cosima was now in a bind. She definitely had no intention of agreeing with Delphine Cormier openly, but she did need to cut off Alison and Rachel.

"Well, we can only stop when someone is declared the winner, and if I remember correctly the Master of Ceremonies is…" Cosima trailed off, eyes scanning the room. Who was the Master of Ceremonies?

"We never drew the Master of Ceremonies before starting." Rachel offered cooly, doing another shot to still match Alison.

"That's right! You draw from a hat, no?" Delphine said, trying to look everywhere but at Cosima, who was wearing a bit of a low-cut dress for such a high profile event. If she wasn't mistaken, Cosima was eyeing her cleavage back, the way she had done not-so-coyly almost four years ago.

"Well, we can't do that. So I think the Master of Ceremonies should be…" The Governor General's eyes scanned the crowd, looking for someone she _knew_ could out-drink all of them. "The representative from Ireland!" Alison declared, before putting her head down, forehead first, on the lip of the table for a nap.

"Shit." Cosima said, putting her hand on her head. She certainly couldn't openly disagree with the representative from the host country.

"Who's the representative from Ireland?" Delphine asked innocently, trying to keep her gaze averted from the dread-locked doctor of the sciences sitting across from her.

Rachel smirked, trying to motion over to the wait staff to go ahead and start clearing their table early. "Siobhan Sadler." She answered.

They most certainly would need another round to keep up with _the _Siobhan Sadler.


	3. Who What Where When

_Author's Note: So I'm super stoked that y'all are on board for this ride! Thanks everyone for the reviews, follows, for just stopping by for a glance...I really didn't think anyone was going to want to read this much of an AU besides me so thanks!_

* * *

Chapter 3

"Hello, Sir," Alison spat out on the cell phone between giggles, holding her nose to change her voice, "Yes, Mr. Prime Minister…we are calling to confirm your order for tonight."

"Shhh…change your voice more. Do an accent." Rachel laughed in a hushed voice next to the Governor General.

Alison immediately added a Southern American twag, "Yes, we have an order here for the Prime Minister for ten strippers dressed as clowns who can do the Friday night special." Alison had to pull back the phone to keep from laughing, as Rachel was visibly shaking in the background from holding in her laughter. "Are you sure? Would you like us to go over the Friday night special? It involves balloon animals. You should see what our girls can do—Hello?"

Alison and Rachel burst out laughing as soon as he hung up, huddled together in a hotel room they had broken into.

"Give it to me. We're going to do Austria next."

* * *

Cosima and Delphine were wandering through the banquet areas, trying to find the Governor General and the Baronness.

They knew something was up as soon as Rachel had followed Alison to the restroom to "check up" on her, and then never returned. They also knew that if Alison's famous prank calls from her work cell of world leaders ended up going in the wrong direction, well, they would have no way of knowing who was going to be at war with whom by the next morning.

"Let's try the kitchen. Maybe they're messing with the desserts like they did at the South American Treaty signing." Delphine said, unconsciously moving to grab Cosima's arm and lead them in the right direction.

"Here's an idea. You check the kitchen. I'll check the service elevators. And I don't need to be pulled around like a life-sized doll." Cosima said, pulling her arm back.

"Absolutely not. You know Rachel is a biter when she's drunk. I'm not going alone. So do you 'pull around' your life sized doll?"

"No, she just..hey. I see what you did there. There is no life sized doll." Cosima said, following Delphine in a huff, not looking up to see the smirk on the attorney's face.

"Really, because it's sounding to me like this is something you have experience in. I guess even _doctors_ get cold and lonely at night. Don't they, _Doctor_ Niehaus?"

"You don't always have to be in charge. I'm not one of your clients, _Ms._ Cormier. Not everything that both of us do is always going to be up to you. And, if I remember correctly, you're the one who has a history of climbing into someone else's bed."

* * *

Siobhan sat herself down with Evan, Tony, and Sarah, motioning to her assistant, Felix, to come join them.

"I have a proposition for all of you, since we're all in alliance countries." She said, watching the table visibly gulp.

They didn't gulp because Siobhan was a particularly mean person, but her mystery was intimidating. The issue was that nobody actually knew what she did, what her position was, or what part of Ireland's interests she represented.

Because she never arrived at any government function with a position attached to her name, rumors always flew when she entered the room. Some believed that she held a government position so secret it didn't possess a title at all, others thought she simply came from wealth and chose not to disclose any connection to nobility, even fueling some rumors of royal connections.

All anyone could tell for certain was that when Siobhan spoke, she had the final word.

Once the table quieted and gave her full attention, she continued.

"We have reason to believe that some of the nations here have information that they are not sharing with the alliance, but that they are required to share by treaty. If anyone hears anyone mention R607, you are to find me immediately. You are not to you're your bosses either, I've made sure they are not going to be useful for the evening. Understood?"

The table looked around at each other, before Evan started the question everyone was thinking.

"What is-"

"Evan, dear boy. Do you like being alive?" He hurriedly nodded, turning red at even the thought of questioning Siobhan Sadler. "Then you will not even think of finishing that question, to me or anybody else. If anyone hears of R607, you need to find me. Your charges are, shall we say, currently indisposed."

Siobhan thought back to the last hour of the drinking game, during which she had learned that the quickest way to put Alison, known as an international big-mouth, out of commission, was to keep changing the rules so that she and Rachel always had to drink.

She sat at the table, smirking to herself at just how easy it had been.

* * *

"Pumpkin, why don't you call me anymore?" Alison wasn't even trying to disguise her voice at this point, assuming the President of Peru would have no idea what she sounded like anyway, never having met the man. "Awww, pumpkin, don't be like that. You know who it is. It's your snuggle bunny."

Rachel also wasn't covering her laugher in the background anymore.

"Your what is there? Your wife? You're cheating on me with your wife, Pumpkin belly?" _Click._

"Rachel?" Alison asked, tears rolling down her eyes, watching Rachel laugh in a similar state.

"Yes?"

"What time is it in India?"

"Do it."

* * *

_Switzerland, 4 Years Earlier_

So far, what Delphine had learned at CIA spy training was more about Cosima than about actually becoming a spy.

To be fair, she wasn't paying much attention to the actual training, intrigued by her rude yet attractive suitemate. When she was first asked to go to a multi-nation spy training, run by the American CIA but for all countries in the alliance, she was excited. She knew such an offer was only made to those who would go on to occupy the highest positions, where their positions would also double as useful for intelligence gathering.

She had already been taught by the top intelligence network in France, being prepped for future spy work during her travels on official business. She had observation and memory skills that could rival a seasoned bird watcher.

She also had the ability to watch someone completely just out of the corner of her eye, a skill she had spend the better part of the afternoon and evening perfecting on Cosima.

She had seen how all of the written preliminary tests Cosima hurried through, clearly assuming she knew all of the answers, then sitting back, letting her boredom show.

_Ahh, it's not so good to let your emotions be so easily read, Dr. Niehaus. You give too much away; make yourself an easy target. _

She could tell by how Cosima was always quick to answer that she seemed to think that she knew everything, no doubt the product of a school system in which someone of higher intelligence would find themselves finished and bored very quickly.

_It seems the arrogance has a root_. Delphine thought, putting her mind back to her own test, making sure to keep her poker face on, so anyone watching her would not be able to see what came easily to her, and what was giving her difficulty.

After returning to the room, having lingered about, making polite conversation in a common area with other students, she found Cosima already dressed for sleep and reading in bed. Of course, she had entered without knocking, hearing the dramatic sigh of annoyance from her roommate.

"Seriously. I knock before I walked in. Is it too much to ask?" The woman breathed out, looking up from her book.

"You do?" Delphine asked, surprised. She had assumed the request had originally been simply to begin a week-long pissing contest.

"Yes. You just weren't here to see it." Cosima mumbled the last part, looking back down at her book. Delphine paused for a moment, watching the woman. She noticed how small she looked in the large bed, still keeping her dreadlock pulled back, even though she was clearly tired and ready for sleep.

"Okay. I can knock too, I suppose." Delphine said simply, turning slightly to the side to grab clothes from the dresser on her side of the room. She could still watch Cosima from her side vision.

What she saw was the young Ph. D. looking out over the book to watch Delphine with a look that would have been missed by someone not trained in the art of watching people. She saw a look of appreciation without the words actually coming out of Cosima's mouth. It was a subtle softening, a non-threatening gaze. Delphine thought it was almost sweet, until she noticed the eyes wander for a few moments down to her backside before hurrying back to the safety of the book.

_You give away too much, Mon Ami. I can read you like you're reading that book_. Delphine smirked, taking the subtle checking out of her toned backside as an accidental compliment.

* * *

_Later that Night, Switzerland_

Delphine laid awake, listening to the sound of Cosima Niehaus, as in Doctor Cosima Niehaus, snoring at such volumes she was questioning her possible genetic connections to the Yeti of the Hiimalayas.

Delphine couldn't help but sit up and look over at where the obscene, deep noises were coming from.

"You have got to be kidding me." She said in a low voice, clearly only to herself.

_She is too trusting to be a spy. You never fall asleep first. Ever. _

Delphine decided she would have to show Cosima exactly why you don't fall asleep first, and something would have to be done about the noise.

The blonde not-so-quietly hopped and out of bed and went over to her roommate's, hoping the noise of movement would be enough to rouse her out of her sleep.

It wasn't, and because Cosima was such a deep sleeper, Delphine was now worried that not only was she not cut out to be a spy, but as someone looking for government jobs, she would be easily preyed on by actual spies.

She leaned over the snoring body, carefully putting a hand on her shoulder, shaking gently.

"Cosima. Cosima?" No response other than an even deeper snore-laced inhale. She climbed in next to the woman, kneeling next to her to shake a little more firmly. "Cosima!"

Cosima had no idea what was happening to her. All she knew was that there was an intruder of some sort, possibly trying to strangle her.

Before even opening her eyes, she reached under her pillow in a panic, pulling out her emergency pepper spray, flipping off the safety lock from touch before letting a stream out at the assumed attacker.

* * *

_Present Day_

"Question: why are we the ones wandering around looking for these two instead of their assistants? Isn't that what assistants are sort of for?" Cosima said, stopping to pull off her shoes. She had not planned her outfit based on the Drunk Adventures of Alison and Rachel.

"That is a good question. Hold on." Delphine took out her cell phone, noticing that Cosima did not "hold on" for her, instead continuing to walk slowly, stopping to put an ear to each door to see if she could hear drunken giggles. Delphine rolled her eyes, dialing her assistant.

"Evan! Are you near Sarah? Why is she not out looking for Rachel? Did she not notice that she just disappeared? Seriously? Well, we are and we're looking for them. Well, why can't you? Fine." Delphine hung up. Cosima stopped to look at her, waiting for an update, but refusing to ask. Delphine knew she wouldn't give the blonde the satisfaction of admitting she wanted to know something.

"They are playing cards with Siobhan Sadler in the lounge. They said they don't need to look for them, Sarah has Rachel's cell on GPS tracking and she's still in the building, so we should assume Alison is as well." Delphine explained.

"Super. Just a giant five-star hotel with not one, but four Presidential suites that can host up to three weddings and a business expo all at once. No biggie." Cosima sighed. "Maybe we should give up. How much trouble could they possibly get into?"

* * *

_Switzerland, 4 Years Earlier_

"Delphine, I'm like, really, super sorry. I really thought I was being attacked." Cosima said, standing in front of the taller woman who was seated on the sink.

As soon as Cosima had realized whom she was pepper spraying, she immediately pulled her not-attacker into the bathroom to flush out the burning woman's eyes. Now, she was dabbing a cloth, letting tears come up, rinsing, then dabbing them again. She knew most of it had been flushed out, but she would still feel the stinging.

"I guess nobody's ever told you that you snore before." Delphine said in between sniffles, trying to remember not to wipe her eyes when she felt the tears fill up, instead blinking and letting Cosiima dab them gently away.

"You could say I don't really give anyone the chance. I don't really do roommates."

"Gee, I can't imagine why not." Delphine said, laughing so that Cosima knew she was kidding with her.

"Yeah, you could say that after a bunch of back-to-back disasters with roommates, I've made sure to live alone. I won't even share an apartment, much less a bedroom." Cosima said.

Delphine watched as the woman cleaned out the cloth, wringing it out, then bringing it up to dab again. She saw something else she hadn't seen yet.

Cosima was smiling.

It was a shocking sight, to say the least. The woman must do it more often than Delphine would have thought, as she had the most adorable little smile wrinkles that formed around two tiny dimples. Delphine smiled back.

"Well, I can safely say that after me, you aren't going to have a line of women waiting to bunk with you." Delphine said, hearing Cosima laugh for the first time. She continued to blink her tears, letting the woman dab.

Her eyesight was beginning to come back more fully. She could see the woman's glasses were slightly crooked, having thrown them on after realizing whom she had sprayed.

"Does it still hurt?" Cosima asked, trading her smile for a guilty look. Delphine nodded. "I'm sorry, again."

"I suppose it's good to know that given your predisposition to hidden weaponry, I'm at least safe with you." Cosima paused her careful washing.

"You are." She answered seriously.

Cosima knew that she was going to be a crappy spy, that much would have been clear to even a toddler learning to sneak to the cookie jar. But hidden weaponry…that had become somewhat of a Niehaus specialty since taking up government work.

Delphine realized how close they were at that moment, Cosima standing between her legs, using her free hand to hold Delphine's cheek. The hand was gentle but firm, and so warm in the cool of the night. Cosima's hand was softer than she would have imagined, her thumb handling Delphine's face carefully, occasionally moving in a little brush when the tears refilled and flowed over.

All of Delphine's stoic training was melting away, feeling herself lean into the hand on her cheek, closing her eyes again, this time not to blink, but to lean into the touch. She felt Cosima stand there, letting her, continuing to caress the soft cheek. She opened her eyes, finding Cosima only a couple of inches away, staring back.

She saw Cosima unconsciously lick her lips, then bite the bottom one. She was easy to read, indeed. Only this time, Delphine was subconsciously sending the same signals right back.

The blonde didn't know who leaned in first, all she knew was a second later, she felt Cosima's lips pressed against her own, responding immediately to mold her mouth to the warmth she felt, closing her eyes. She felt Cosima pull back for a moment to deposit the cloth in the sink, before moving back to wrap her arms around the taller woman's neck, moving back to press their lips together again.

Delphine ignored the burning still tingling in her eyes, keeping them closed, focusing on the slowly moving lips, the breath she felt skipping across her cheek, the hands that began moving along her shoulders. She kissed until her eyes were no longer the part of her that was burning from the contact with Cosima Niehaus.


	4. Shared Experiences

Chapter 4

"You want to quit? Seriously? We've only been looking for an hour. You aren't even going to try the pool area with me?" Delphine said, almost shouting at this point. "You know what Cosima? I'm getting sick of your shit. When those two get into trouble, it look bad for all of us present. Did you ever think that this isn't always about you? Just check the pool with me. It's not like this is fucking fun for me either."

She was tired. She was annoyed that they were spending yet another conference hunting down their drunken friends. Her feet hurt. She had spent an hour with Cosima, who did nothing but jab her with side comments.

"The pool area? You think our friends snuck off to play water polo? And don't talk to me about being a quitter. Also, don't talk about me being the one who thinks everything is about me." The way Cosima said that part made Delphine remember exactly whom she was dealing with, immediately feeling guilty at what Cosima meant to imply. She made a conscious effort to soften her tone, but couldn't help still being supremely annoyed with the woman.

"Well, I'm running out of ideas, and the fact that nobody else bothers to look for them is worrying me. 'Worrying', Doctor Niehaus, is when people feel emotions that qualify as caring about other people. One day, you too might know what that's like."

"Says the woman whose country hands liquor and cigarettes to children the second they're finished with milk. I'm sure caring is just in your genes."

"Alright, you can insult me, but you don't have to insult my country. If you hate France so much, stop trying to buddy up with us. I'm going to chalk that last comment up to all of the ingredients in American food that cause decreased brain functioning. Really, isn't having an American at an environmental summit a bit of a joke?"

"Ahhh, and here I thought we were about to agree not to insult each other's countries. But since we're already here, I'll let that one slide." Cosima said, stopping at their room, opening her purse to get her key card.

"Damn it." Delphine said. Cosima had spent their entire conversation pushing Delphine's buttons so she wouldn't realize they were looping back around to their room.

"Umm, yes, damn it." Cosima said, looking back up from her purse. "I can't find my key card. Of course not, because that would make the evening end on a not-so-terrible note."

"Here." Delphine said, pulling her key out and swiping it through the slot on the door.

Before Cosima could answer with the smart ass comment that was brewing about Delphine hiding her card so she could control the door to the room, the two women paused, only a foot inside, listening to the noises coming from their room.

There was a lot of giggling, some muffled talking, and if Cosima wasn't mistaken, possibly either a hiccup or burp.

The shorter woman motioned for the blonde to stay, reaching into her boot to pull out a switchblade. She crept into the room further, finding that the assailants were unidentifiable, since they were hidden under the blankets of the bed.

More specifically, the blankets of Cosima's bed. Now, she was moving close enough to hear the conversation under the giggles.

"Let's order pizza! Let's order pizza from Italy and make them air lift it here! I have diplomatic immunity. They have to give me what I want."

Alison giggled harder, snuggling closer to Rachel under the blankets. "That's not what that means, Rach."

Cosima's jaw dropped, turning back to look at Delphine, who had indeed stayed put. She put the switchblade down on the dresser, rolling her head back and sighing. Delphine crept up, turning the corner into the room to see the two-person sized lump under the blankets.

"Rachel! Alison!" She said immediately, seeing all movement from the lump stop.

"Don't say anything. They can't see us." They both heard Alison say.

"We cannot, but we can hear you." Delphine said, feeling tired of this whole situation, and physically tired from the whole night.

"Shhh…Delphine. We broke into a room." Rachel said from under the blankets.

"Our room! You broke into our room! Hey-did you guys steal my key card? Alison? Rachel?" Cosima moved to the bed, pulling the covers off of the two women, who were snuggled up, clearly drifting off to sleep.

"Ohhhh no you don't." Cosima said, trying to pull Alison out of the bed. The woman was heavier than she looked, and just about passed out on top of Rachel. Rachel and somehow managed to pass out at the same time as administering a death grip on Alison.

Cosima turned around to find Delphine already changed, and getting into bed.

"And what do you think you're doing?" She asked, mushing her eyebrows together to visually convey her annoyance.

"They are in your bed. Not mine. This is your problem." Delphine answered, slipping into the covers.

* * *

_Switzerland, 4 Years Earlier_

Delphine and Cosima were each back in their respective beds, staring at the ceiling instead of sleeping.

"I mean, I liked it, it's not that." Delphine stated for what had to have been the fifth or sixth time.

"I know. You're right. We'd be kicked out of here so fast…" Cosima said, knowing logically the words that were coming out of her mouth were correct, but had nothing to do with what she was feeling.

"I mean, I liked it too…" She added after a moment, still thinking about everything that was Delphine; Delphine's little sounds she made when she kissed, the moan and muffled sounds of satisfaction, her perfume, her softness.

They had just broken at least two Academy rules for behavior while in intelligence training, and probably a book's worth of spy rules.

"Good then. So be both liked it...That's good. And sort of really bad." Delphine said, letting out a long exhale, still lying on her back, staring straight up at the ceiling.

"Yeah. We'd both be considered unusable failures if we got kicked out of the Academy for sexual indiscretion. I'd never be considered worth taking a chance on for a government position again." Cosima said, letting her mouth move to form words while all she could really do was replay having kissed Delphine in her head over and over again. Cosima was right; if a student couldn't exhibit self-control, they would have no hope in the intelligence gathering world.

"Right. Exactly." Delphine responded, even though that was not what she was talking about at all.

Delphine Cormier, Esquire, did not do relationships. Not since the string of relationships she had endured over the last ten years had left her less than hopeful that there was hope for anything other than a few months of bliss, followed by a few months of hell, and ultimately a draining separation process.

Delphine's first girlfriend set the tone for how every relationship afterwards would be approached. As a high school couple that hid their relationship to go on to university education together, Delphine quickly learned that at some point Celia had fallen out of love with her, and in love with her best friend. It was a rough lesson to learn when sometimes something doesn't work out through no fault of one's own, simply because that's sometimes how the heart works.

Unfortunately for Delphine, it also worked that way with the next one, who didn't have the decency to break up with her before sleeping with a friend as at least Celia had the decency to do, after Delphine walked in on her girlfriend and a friend at a party after the two had disappeared for an inordinate amount of time.

Then there was a string of, "I love you, but I can't see myself with you long term" break ups, the "It's not me, it's you…but it's some of you" break ups, the "I love you, but we're just not compatible", and finally, "It's not working out, and I don't think I was ever in love with you."

Delphine switched from thinking about the kiss to running the last break-up through her mind. She was over Lily by then, of course, having went through that ordeal two years earlier. But she never really got over the pattern of falling in love quickly, only to end up dumped and heartbroken a year later. She had vowed at that time that she was simply no longer doing relationships.

She was, in some sick, twisted way, grateful that Lily in particular had been so raw, so honest with her. She had something to replay in her head over and over again to remind her never to trust another woman.

"Good. I think we can just accept that we are friends who are here together and attracted to each other and we just have to be adults about it and finish our training." Cosima said definitively.

"Yes. All of that. Good." Delphine answered. _Not good. Not good at all_. Delphine turned to her side, facing Cosima. As Cosima continued to explain just how good of a kisser Delphine was but that she couldn't afford to go back to Washington with her tail between her legs and if circumstances were different and on and on, her hands moved about as she was speaking, as though convincing the ceiling of her points.

Delphine couldn't help but giggle at the cuteness of it, continuing to agreed, adding in occasional "Yes" and "Exactly" qualifiers.

* * *

_Present Day_

"Eighty-five bottles of beer on the wall! Eighty-five bottles of American and not French beer!" Cosima continued to sing from her bunk-down on the floor.

"You are not getting the bed, _Mon Ami._" Delphine thought she was being charitable by giving the woman a blanket in the first place, but was not quite willing to go into pillow-sharing territory.

Cosima amped it up. She was not going to be forced onto the floor by two drunks and the woman who had become her arch-nemesis. She would crawl into bed with Alison and Rachel before giving Delphine the satisfaction of sleeping on the floor on her order, but she wasn't going to let "Plan B" be known yet.

"EIGHTY-FOUR BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL. EIGHTY-FOUR BOTTLES OF BEER! IF ONE SHOULD FALL," Cosima reached up to the table, knocking the ice bucket off for emphasis, "OFF OF THE WALL..."

Delphine groaned from under the pillow she had stuffed over her head, completely shocked that Alison and Rachel were sleeping through the serenade.

"Fine!" Delphine shouted.

"Thank you!" Cosima said, popping up from the floor, pulling up the comforter that she had been lying on, seeing Delphine scoot over and pull back the remaining blankets.

"What are you doing?" The woman asked, still having her glasses on her face, a sign to Delphine that the woman never intended to sleep on the floor.

"I'm making room. I didn't say that _I _was sleeping on the floor. Consider it a compromise." Delphine said, leaving room for Cosima before rolling over to face the windows.

She could hear Cosima huff, considering whether or not she was going to take the space, before sighing and climbing into the bed.

"Fine. Just keep your paws on your side."

"I can do that, with the understanding that I will smother you in your sleep if you start snoring."

"Snoring is a normal human function. Hey! Stop hogging the blankets."

"I gave you a blanket. These are mine. You have also upgraded to a pillow. Stop being a baby."

"_I'm_ the baby? Excuse me? The woman who couldn't touch mud without a mental breakdown a few years ago?"

"You two, stop it! I'm waiting for some call backs!" Alison hissed from her bed, still snuggled up on Rachel, and very clearly clutching a cell phone.

Delphine sat straight up. "Now you're awake?!" Delphine shouted, sending a pillow sailing over to the other bed, garnering no response.

_This is fine. _Delphine thought. _It's a big bed. If Cosima Niehaus can keep herself on her half, and the Whiskey Twins can keep a lid on it—_

Delphine's thoughts were quickly interrupted by the deep sounds of Cosima's snoring, which she seemed to be the only one awake for.

"This is ridiculous." Delphine said to no one in particular.


	5. Morning

_Author's Note: Thank you all SO MUCH for following and all of your kind words! I'm having a lot of fun writing this, and I'm so glad that others are having fun too. You guys are seriously awesome!_

Chapter 5

Cosima lay awake in the bed, contemplating her next movement.

She kept her eyes closed, of course, listening to the giggling that was Alison and Rachel getting ready for the day as though they were in their own room, and not a room they had hijacked from friends and then spent the night drunkenly snuggling in.

Cosima thought back to her spy training, trying to discern if Delphine was awake as well. She tried to hone in on the woman's breathing, which she could feel because her back was pressed flush against Delphine's back. The two had stayed facing opposite ways throughout the night, but as some point moved towards the warmth at the opposite side, causing them to meet in the middle.

The smaller woman couldn't tell if Delphine's breathing showed signs of still being asleep, even as she could feel the deep, slow breaths, as the back expanded slightly into her own, feeling the warmth.

She hated this moment. She hated that she could feel Delphine pressed against her back, after everything the woman had done to her, and that she still enjoyed the touch. Yet, she couldn't seem to bring herself to move. Instead, she seemed resolved to loath herself for how comfortable the feeling on her back was, and how good the simple contact felt.

Alison and Rachel eventually went down for breakfast, not pausing to even wake up their bunkmates.

_Figures. They just used us as a crash pad. _

"I know you're awake." Delphine's voice after the 'click' of the door shutting behind their unintended roommates made Cosima jump for a moment before settling back into the covers, and Delphine's back.

"How…"

"You weren't snoring." Delphine answered, making no move to get up.

"Who could sleep with the two of them each singing in the shower? I'm pretty sure Alison just showed us that she did indeed memorize the entire first act of _RENT_." Cosima said, also choosing not to move.

Delphine laughed, causing little ripples that Cosima could feel across her back. She immediately stiffened, becoming uncomfortable with how much she enjoyed feeling the movement. She was suddenly flushed and feeling awkward.

"I'll make you a deal. If you make us coffee, you can shower first." Delphine said, still showing no signs of moving. If Cosima wasn't mistaken, the woman actually seemed to press slightly harder into her back, causing Cosima's heart to immediately start beating faster.

"Ummm I actually don't think that counts as a deal, since technically I would be making you coffee and be third in the shower, not first."

"Okay. Your choice. But fourth, instead of even third, means you're taking your chances on hot water, towels, and any of that tiny shampoo being left." Delphine answered, still not moving.

Choices, choices, choices. Cosima knew in that moment she could either appease Delphine, and have a way out of the bed before Delphine could turn over and see how much she was blushing, or she could stay in the bed a little longer and draw out a fight.

Cosima turned to page 87 of the 'choose your own adventure' in her head, where she chooses to stay and fight, and continue the confusingly good pressure of being back to back.

"You've never shared a room with Alison before, have you? There already is no shampoo left. And all of the towels will be origami'd into poultry-inspired shapes. I think you're just trying to get coffee-in-bed service, Cormier."

Delphine giggled again, causing Cosima to burrow deeper under the covers, maintaining the contact. The woman's body still felt good, Cosima could admit that. But that didn't mean she was offering butler service.

Cosima's eyes went wide when she felt Delphine rolling over so that she was facing Cosima's back. Cosima kept her body straight, even as she could feel Delphine leaning in to speak right into her ear, causing shivers.

"Ahhh, well, I suppose you got me. I'll start the coffee and go first. But remember, I offered."

With that, Delphine climbed out of the bed slowly, stretching her arms and back before hopping up to head to the bathroom. What Cosima didn't notice, being so shocked at what had just transpired, was Delphine taking the entire coffee pot unit and her phone into the bathroom with her.

* * *

Evan and Tony ended up in line for the breakfast buffet behind Alison and Rachel, who both looked entirely too chipper for how much they had drank the night before.

"There's no way those two weren't puking their guts out three hours ago. Had to be." Tony leaned in to whisper to Evan.

"I am going to say charcoal tablets. I hear it also does wonders for the skin."

Rachel turned around slowly, with a predatory grin forming on her lips.

"Perhaps the two of you just haven't built up your tolerance yet? This is why you leave the big games to the professionals." Rachel answered in that tone where Tony couldn't tell if she was being threatening or joking, but he was certain that she had used the last ten seconds of speaking to serve herself the last sausage.

"Any chance you two know when Cosima's coming down? I haven't checked in with her since yesterday." Tony said, simply piling on extra bacon to make up for the lost sausage opportunity.

"Ahhh, yes. Dr. Niehaus, if I know anything at all about Ms. Cormier, will be running extraordinarily late today." Rachel said, flashing another confusing yet terrifying grin to the men, before leaving the line to follow Alison to a table.

"What does that mean?" Evan whispered to Tony.

"Grrr…it means they did something to them, Evan. We better stay out of the way as much as possible today. I don't know if you've noticed, but Dr. Niehaus isn't blondie's biggest fan."

"_Au contraire, mon ami_. I think she likes her very much." Evan said, topping his one sad bowl of cottage cheese with fruit.

"You and I have very different ideas of what the word 'like' involves, buddy." Tony said, eyeing the small bowl that he would not even consider food.

"No, I do not think we do. Watch them. They don't fight like they hate each other. They fight like they are married; like they have so much history that they can get away with saying anything to the other one and have it brushed off and forgotten the next day."

"I've actually heard Cosima refer to your boss as '_Madamoiselle _Fuck-Face', and I'm not entirely sure Delphine was out of earshot. I knew the French were romantic, but this one is a stretch even for the French-iest of the French."

Evan sat down across from Tony, chuckling to himself.

"What?" Tony said, digging into anything he could get his hands on that came from an animal to start his day, careful not to get grease on his suit.

Evan continued to chuckle, shaking his head. "Alright. If you say so. I'm just imagining things then."

"Damn right, I say so. I'm always right about these things." Tony said, ignoring Evan's continuing smirk.

"What the fuck is that, anyway? It looks like a yogurt ate block of cheese and then puked it into your bowl."

"Ahh, Tony, you are always so poetic."

* * *

Alison and Rachel knew to keep quiet when Siobhan Sadler was running the show, and for the 9 AM breakout committee on the environmental impact of nuclear weaponry, Siobhan was most certainly running the show.

They watched as she engaged in a heated argument with a representative of Turkey's parliament over non-disclosure clauses, causing the two to continuously raise their voices in disagreement.

"And I do NOT appreciate, Ms. Sadler, the phone calls at three o'clock in the morning confirming my appointment for some type of enlargement procedure that I did not even sign off for! I know that was you, trying to throw me and make sure I come in here sleepy and tell you everything you want to know!" The man shouted, causing Alison and Rachel to slide down in their seats a bit. As long as he thought it was Siobhan, they knew they would be fine.

"Well, Mr. Speaker, if you do not appreciate appointment confirmation calls at any time, of any sort, you should probably stop making such appointments in the first place." Siobhan answered calmly over the giggles in the room. "As for the agreement here, all other parties have made it clear they would be willing to disclose national nuclear activity within each country's own borders if such disclosures do not affect their nation's national security initiatives, and yet here we are, arguing over this again."

"Actually, we have not all agreed. I know for a fact that the United States agrees with me, that this is taking things too far and using an environmental policy for other political means."

"Really then. If the representative from the United States agrees with you so much, why is she not here?" Siobhan asked. Everyone looked around, noticing that not only was the United States missing from the meeting, but France as well, until Evan and Tony rushed in.

"I apologize for our lateness. I will be representing Ms. Cormier, and Anthony here will be sitting proxy for Dr. Niehaus."

"Actually, it's just 'Tony'" Tony leaned in to whisper, earning a jab in the ribs.

The Speaker from Turkey eyed the two for a moment, before nodding in acceptance.

"Very well. Anthony, will the United States agree to be held hostage by these ridiculous demands in the name of 'environmental protection', or do you still stand for any sort of values?" The man asked, watching Tony's eyes go wide with panic.

Tony had to think back to the game plan. They just had to stall until the two women could collect themselves and get their butts down to the conference area. Just stall. Not make any agreements.

"I would like to review the arguments from the representative from Ireland one more time, if I may." Tony answered, leaning back in his chair. "In full detail."

* * *

Cosima was pounding on the bathroom door for the third time that morning.

"Delphine, come on. Now you're just being an ass to be an ass." Cosima shouted through the door, then giving it a kick, knowing full well it wasn't going to do anything.

Not only had Delphine taken the coffee pot in with her, but had decided on a bath rather than a shower, and had been in the bathroom with Alison's abandoned iPod, also working her way through the _RENT_ soundtrack.

"I offered you the bathroom first, you declined! And my bath is not done until we've gone 'Over the Moon'!"

Cosima had flopped down on the bed, starting to get antsy. Everyone at the conference already knew she was always the last one into a panel, but this was ridiculous. She also had no idea that Delphine had already called Evan, and requested that Evan and Tony go to the first panel as their proxies.

"Delphine! Delphine!" She continued pounding. "You're making us unreasonably late. I understand if you want to make me miserable, but this is unprofessional! And you left me with no coffee! That was a dick move, by the way, even by your standards!" Cosima railed on the door for a good thirty seconds, only causing Delphine, who at the moment had the most upper of upper hands, to laugh.

She turned down the radio to converse back with the woman who she was somewhat enjoying getting a rise out of, as she finished shaving her legs in the bubbly water.

"Cosima, what is it called when you want something back and the other person has demands?" She shouts through the door, standing up to dry herself off, but not draining the tub yet. She didn't want Cosima to hear the bath winding down. Delphine had already resolved that she would climb through the heat vent if she had to, but she was not giving up the bathroom prematurely.

_Academy Rule # 17: Recognize when you have what the other party wants. Use it to your advantage._

"Blackmail? You're blackmailing me?"

"Sort of like that, but with more vigor…"

"A hostage situation? You're holding the bathroom hostage?" Cosima said in shock.

"Yes, that would be the appropriate term."

"What?! What could you possibly even want from me that warrants holding an entire room hostage?" Cosima said, jumping when Delphine cracked the door open, wearing a robe.

"I want you…to try to be nice to me. Just while we're here, and we have to live together and see each other everyday."

"Tall order. Especially since you are now technically a terrorist."

"I don't think it's a lot to ask. You can share a bed with me, but not be nice to my face?" Delphine was right, she knew. They had to start being nicer, at least for the sake of professionalism.

What Cosima didn't know was that every little jab, each little argument, whether instigated by herself or the other woman, still did get under Delphine's skin. It was a mixture of anger at the woman she had met years ago, the guilt of what followed, the talk that never happened but instead continued to fester with unresolved issues, and everything that they refused to talk about and continued to just jab at each other through side comments hurt Delphine under her exterior of banter, causing her to send out little digs as well. Of course, she enjoyed getting a rise out of the woman. But waking up feeling her body also brought back other memories, and reminded her how much the comments sometimes did hurt.

She had wondered briefly while in the bath if her comments hurt Cosima too, before she remembered that she was the one who had hurt her first, only to have it returned in full force. She couldn't take all of the blame for the spiral of hate they had fallen down, but she knew she was certainly responsible for more than half.

Delphine had a lot of time to think while sitting surrounded by the lilac scented bubbles. She couldn't wake up next to Cosima, touching Cosima's body, and then have nasty comments thrown her way from the woman.

Cosima looked into the woman's eyes, expecting the usual mixture of playfulness and underlying loathing, but was startled to find a genuine want in her gaze. Cosima let out a breath, surprised by the honestly in the other woman's eyes.

"That has to go both ways, you know. It's not just one of us doing this." Cosima said in a low voice, even though they were the only two in the room.

Delphine nodded. "Okay. For one week, well, now six days, we have to try to be nice to each other." When Cosima nodded back, Delphine opened the door, letting Cosima step into the bathroom.

* * *

_Switzerland, 4 Years Earlier_

Delphine opened the laptop as soon as the buzzer to start went off. She went through each file meticulously, making sure every time she moved to a new sector, she erased any sign that she had been in the previous one.

Delphine had been paired with Cosima for all of their hacking classes, learning how to steal files, upload to and from remote locations, and now, how to search for hidden things.

Cosima, of course, had found the file that Delphine had hidden on her system in about thirty seconds flat. Delphine, however, was having much more difficulty, and couldn't see any sign of anything hidden on Cosima's Academy-issued laptop.

"Ten seconds." _Shit._

"Nine. Eight. Seven." The instructor counted down, with Delphine panicking, frantically clearing her tracks so she would at least be an untraceable failure.

"One." Delphine closed the computer, walking away with her head hanging.

Cosima was waiting outside when she left.

"Hey!" Cosima said, not wanting to ask 'so, did you pass?' when Delphine's face was conveying the answer.

"You are either the best at encryption technology, Dr. Niehaus, or I am just the worst at computer intelligence." She said, shoving her hands into her pockets as she spoke.

"Hey. Everyone has strengths. I can't tell the difference between Hindi and Bengali on a tapped line, you can't find the biggest file known to man hidden on my itty-bitty laptop…" Cosima paused, shoving Delphine playfully with her shoulder before continuing, "We all have strengths and they're all important. You just won't be put on technology tasks, that's all."

"I appreciate the optimism, but failing is failing." Delphine answered, still frustrated with herself.

"It's not failing at all. They're just trying to identify who's good at what. I mean honestly, don't you think if they expected us all to be hackers we'd have to be here for a year or more? Most of us don't even have computer related degrees." Cosima said.

It was true. And Delphine knew that she was not the only one who couldn't do the task. Still, she never did well with an unfinished assignment, and had certainly never failed a test before of any sort.

Cosima looked at the woman who still looked utterly dejected.

"Hey. I have an idea. Why don't we blow off dinner, grab a bunch of junk food instead, and watch a movie back at the room? I have a bunch of stuff loaded on my laptop."

"No you don't. I was just all over your laptop." Delphine answered, noticing Cosima look around the hallway to make sure nobody was near them before leaning in.

"Not my official laptop. The other one that only I, well, now only you and I know about." She said, leaning back and giving Delphine a wink. Delphine couldn't help but laugh. This woman came prepared for any sort of situation.

"Okay. But if we get caught, it's all going to be on you." Delphine said, smiling back at Cosima, whose face was beaming in delight. Cosima linked her arm around the taller woman's as they walked.

"Deal."


	6. Together

Chapter 6

After a committee breakout on the impact of nuclear weapons development and the environment, followed by the North American caucus on pollution regulation, and the lunch meeting on the future of plastics in a global economy, Alison had just about had enough of the summit, and it was only the first full day.

She had always gone through the motions at these types of conferences, where everyone comes in hopeful and wide-eyed for change, then the representatives do nothing but argue for a few days, eventually leading everyone to believe they will never agree, and degrading into a combination of cocktail parties and hung over meetings where most attendees only continue to show up so they can be photographed going in to appear environmentally friendly to the media.

Subsequently, Alison was bored with it. She excused herself from the afternoon breakout session, wandering around to look for any of her friends. She decided that the advantage of staying in the hotel that the conference was at was the availability of a quick nap option if nobody was around.

As she walked down the corridor lined with windows to the back gardens of the hotel, she could hear a mumbled fuss coming from the grounds. She looked around, seeing a few assistants shuffling about in the hallways, with nobody else seeming to notice the noise.

As she moved to peer out the window, she saw the tremendous crowds of young adults chanting, with fists in the air, with what looked like police in riot gear keeping the crowd contained to a specific area.

"Oh. Come. On." Alison said to herself, frustrated. They had specifically marketed the event in such a way that the local college students would _not_ protest the event. Clearly, that particular plan had failed miserably.

She strained to try to hear what they were chanting, finally hearing the three syllables over and over again, her eyes going wide.

Alison took out her cell phone, hoping desperately that Cosima had at some point gotten herself down to the meetings and was loafing about with her phone on.

* * *

"Maybe you can explain again, Ms. Cormier, the penalties for breaking environmental protection laws." Cosima said threateningly, eyeing down the two men in suits representing a large global conglomerate at the conference.

How they were even approved for attendance was beyond the two of them, but everyone at the conference seemed to be aware that they were squaring off against Niehaus and Cormier, and gathered to watch the match.

"Ahhh, yes, the penalties. That is my favorite part. While the United States seems to prefer fines, and hefty fines at that, many countries have thrown in prison time for those responsible. Do you think you'd do well in prison, Mr. Falls?"

"Ohhh, and then there's also the possibility of _both_ fines and imprisonment, not to mention the public spectacle that would surround every product your company makes." Cosima added, the two women standing up to stare down the men, who had most certainly _not_ anticipated what happened when Cosima and Delphine were paired together.

No matter how much Cosima and Delphine had spent fighting over the last few years whenever thrown together for professional reasons, there was always one thing they could agree on: their shared hatred for the dumping of toxic chemicals into nature, the food supply, or through leaking. It was a particular passion for the two, as Cosima had built her Doctoral research into proving the harm of five different classification of chemical toxins, which happened to be the same toxins that Delphine then in turn used the research to prosecute companies dumping the chemicals illegally.

Even though the two had just barely called a truce a few hours earlier, the adrenaline rush from battle was pushing them higher and higher. Further, the two were beyond angry that the men wiggled their way into the summit to argue that the limitations on their toxins was too strict, even insulting Cosima's research.

That was a big, big mistake.

"Prison life. For environmental violations. Tell me, Mr. Falls and Mr. Shellington, what do you think they do to those with—what do we call it, Cosima, wimpy?"

"Yes, wimpy. Cowardly, even."

"Wimpy, cowardly reasons for being imprisoned—what do they do with the wimpy men in the showers? How are you with sleeping a bunk away from a murderer?"

"Oh, there are murderers there, make no mistake. Mr. Falls, your particular chemical that was banned last year killed how many children, Delphine, before we banned it?" The crowd gasped at the development.

"Three. And Mr. Shellington, doesn't _your_ company make baby products? If the public were to find out that the chemical from Mr. Falls' company was in any way affiliated with your company through joint ownership, how many baby shower gifts do you think would still be bought from your company?" Both women narrowed their eyes at the men, the intent in their tone clear.

"And don't forget the part where you're reviewing these quarterly earnings from prison. After paying hundreds of thousands in fines."

"We'll even come visit you. After the media has a field day with the idea, of course."

"Absolutely. We wouldn't let you just drain your life away in prison without a visit. I'm sure your families would stick by you as well, your wives…"

"ALRIGHT. You've made your point. I can see this was the wrong venue for us to discuss our ideas." Mr. Shellington responded, garnering a cheer from the crowd as the two men stood up to leave in a huff, grabbing their papers without even stuffing them back into their briefcases.

The group of representatives who had been standing on the side watching the match unfold clapped as the unwanted representatives left the room. As soon as they were out of sight, the two women relaxed, then realized they had just won the battle, breaking out into smiles of satisfaction through the cheers.

Delphine shot Cosima a look of appreciation, which Cosima received with a blush, enlarging her smile.

"Still think they hate each other?" Evan leaned over to whisper to Tony, who simply rolled his eyes.

"What are you two on about?" Sarah said, leaning into the huddle.

"Oh, you know, we're just talking about how our employers have secret affections for each other." Evan said smugly, as they watch Cosima and Delphine converse in a way that was far from arguing. In fact, Tony's eyes were about to bulge out of his head as he saw what looked like Cosima laughing at something Delphine said.

At something she said. Not _at _her.

"Am I in an alternate fucking universe or something?" Tony said.

"Oh please. I'd bank on those two either a) will be shagging later, b) have already shagged, or c) a little bit of both." Sarah added, before being pulled away by a conversation starting in her Bluetooth earpiece.

Tony's head began to spin, remembering picking up the pieces of Cosima's last break up.

After Cosima's last girlfriend had finally pushed the relationship to the argument of the century one morning before Tony had arrived in the government car, complete with tinted windows and driver, he had a full view of what breaking up with Cosima was like.

It involved Cosima throwing things out of a second story window into the street, in broad daylight.

"Everything you own in a box to the left!" She shouted out, throwing the woman's strap-on through to the street, dildo still strapped inside.

"Then put it in a box, goddamnit!" The woman shouted back up.

Tony remembered the event vividly, as did the Youtube channel it ended up on, after someone had snatched up a thirty second shot of it and uploaded the break-up almost immediately.

On the up side, Tony reminded himself, the video only made Cosima more popular with the public. But as he watched her interact with the blonde with more gentleness than he had ever seen before, he began to worry what _this_ break up would look like.

* * *

_Switzerland, 4 Years Earlier_

Delphine rolled Cosima over as they kissed, instinctually jamming her thigh between the smaller woman's legs, feeling the hips below her respond by pressing up. The moan that she felt vibrate through her mouth felt almost as delicious as the tongue that followed, pressing its way in to swirl, the sounds of their mouths overshadowing the narrative of the film still playing in the background.

The movie had rolled barely past the opening credits before the two had attached themselves at the mouth, forgetting that it was playing completely in favor of allowing the pull of carnal desire to overtake the evening.

There was no discussion. It took one shared looked before they rushed in to join lips, followed by tongues.

Delphine, even while giving in to what she really wanted, was still having an internal struggle, even though her body had made up her mind for her.

_Don't get attached, Delphine. It never goes well. Just enjoy living in the now. She can have your body; just don't give her your heart. _

Delphine blocked out Lily's voice in the back of her head, telling her that she never really loved her, focusing instead on Cosima's body as she lifted up the woman's shirt, lowering her lips to the center of her chest.

Cosima moaned, pulling up Delphine's shirt, the blonde briefly humoring her and allowing the clothing to be pulled off while making quick work of Cosima's bra, pulling it off, not caring that it was tossed somewhere on the floor.

Delphine shut down the voices in her head, her own disapproving warnings and the voices of ex's past, putting her mouth everywhere she could. She pushed large, wet, open-mouthed kisses along Cosima's neck, appreciating how vocal the smaller woman was as she tangled her hands in Delphine's hair to pull her closer. By the time Delphine had worked her way down to take a nipple into her mouth, immediately sucking, Cosima was moaning her satisfaction loudly.

"Shhhhh." Delphine said after popping the bud out of her mouth. "Somebody will hear us."

"I don't care right now." Cosima pulled the blonde's mouth back to her own, making quick work of the buttons on Delphine's pants, the sliding her hands around to cup the backside she had admired more than a few times in the last few days.

The move only caused Delphine to grind harder into the hips below her, rocking teasingly into the woman's center. Cosima felt Delphine's breathing turn into panting, squeezing the ass cheeks, encouraging the motion, keeping Delphine's body pressed against her.

Her head was swimming. She couldn't tell Delphine how wet she was getting; she didn't trust she could use her voice at this point. She was panting herself as she all but threw Delphine around onto her back, yanking down her pants before pulling off her own skirt, then her tights, situating herself between the woman's legs and exploring her breasts with her mouth.

The blonde only let this continue for a few moments, before flipping them again so she was back on top, returning her mouth to the perfect palm-sized breasts in front of her, feeling Cosima arch her back to push more of her into warm, waiting, sucking mouth.

"God, Delphine. Touch me." She growled out, not able to stand it anymore. Delphine nodded, all but ripping off Cosima's lace panties, then pausing for a moment.

She was going to do this, consequences be damned.

She waited until Cosima opened her eyes, and once she had the woman's gaze met her own, she began trailing her tongue down her torso, keeping her eyes locked with Cosima's.

Cosima couldn't remember someone ever looking at her before like she wanted to devour her. She watched the tongue swirl its way down, the sight alone starting to make her shake with anticipation. She kept watching as Delphine paused over her lips, feeling the woman's breath.

When Delphine finally lowered her mouth to her center, Cosima's head snapped back to the pillows, letting out a low moan, pushing her center up to the mouth.

She couldn't believe how skilled Delphine was with her tongue. It was like the woman's mouth was everywhere at once, humming in pleasure, vibrating against the sensitive, dripping flesh as she lashed with her tongue, tugging and sucking.

Delphine was in a lustful daze, licking every drop she could get in her mouth, moving her tongue quickly through the folds, up to both punish and pleasure the little nub she found and quickly took into her mouth to suck. She decided the thighs that had shut around her ears were showing her she made the right move, and she continued to suck, wrapping her hands around Cosima's hips to grab her hands. She nursed on Cosima's swollen center, keeping her mouth attached, taking in deep breaths through her nose to inhale the musky scent.

All she could think when she felt Cosima's center start to pulse and gush, feeling the hands that went to grip her hair, was that it was over too quickly. She could do this all night and die a happy woman. Cosima used her grip to pull Delphine's face away, too sensitive to continue.

Delphine paused for a moment, looking up at the sight above her. Cosima's head was still thrown bank, her chest heaving, with a glistening sheen of sweat covering her skin. The blonde quickly wiped her soaked chin on the sheets before beginning her ascent, kissing her way slowly up the trembling stomach, returning back to gently suckle a nipple while Cosima came down from her high.

_Just for tonight, Delphine. Don't get attached._ She thought, waiting for Cosima to open her eyes again before kissing her down from the high. She felt the woman's body immediately accept her weight, wrapping her arms around her shoulders, gently stroking Delphine's tongue with her own.

_Don't get attached._


	7. Unanswered

_Author's Note-Super big thanks to YOU for reading! This hiatus until the next season is killing me, so I'm sure I'm not the only one! Let's have a little fun until our show comes back, eh?_

Chapter 7

_Switzerland, 4 Years Earlier_

Dr. Cosima Niehaus had encountered more than a few enigmas in her time, but Delphine Cormier thus far had taken the cake.

Cosima had spent the last two weeks sleeping with Delphine, or more accurately, Delphine had spent the last two weeks sleeping with her, but never letting the smaller woman reciprocate.

She didn't want to push Delphine into something she wasn't comfortable with. She had only know the woman for a few weeks; she didn't know if she simply didn't like to be touched. She was, however, aware that her hands were generally caught between some sort of struggle, where one moment the blonde was making noises and encouraging her, but as soon as her hand made contact, she would be pulled away, the woman kissing her knuckles, assuring her she didn't need it.

The last time, Cosima had tried to explore what was going on.

"But do you _want_ it?" She asked, looking hopefully into the pooling light eyes.

The question was left unanswered.

It was driving Cosima insane on multiple fronts. The signs were there that Delphine was also attracted to her; she could feel the woman's wetness when she moved on top of her, letting a thigh brush against her before pulling away to focus on Cosima. She could see the woman's pupils dilate, feel her racing pulse under her tongue. But every time, the woman would stroke Cosima with such skill that it would take an hour for the woman to recover, only to find Delphine hurriedly dressing herself before slipping back under the covers.

That was the other part of it that bothered Cosima. Delphine stayed in the bed with her for the night, even cuddling up. But she always put some sort of clothing back on, not allowing Cosima to touch her back. If she tried, she by now knew the signs that she was about to be gently pushed away; the uncomfortable stiffening, the subtle moving of hands to safely platonic places, the hushed reassurances that everything was fine. The woman was throwing clothes on like Cosima was a quick after-bar-hours fuck, then climbing in and whispering sweet things in her ear while gently running her hands along her back like they were on a honeymoon.

Something was holding this woman back, and for all the amazing time Cosima spent thrusting up from under the blonde, she had spent just as much time trying to figure the woman out without completely scaring her away.

Unfortunately for Delphine, Cosima was less than what one might call tactful, having mastered the art of blunt honesty before potty training. The young Ph.D. already had a plan in place, hoping she could get Delphine to play along for long enough to finally get some answers.

* * *

_Present Day_

"What is going on here? What's the emergency?" Rachel walked briskly towards Alison, still standing at the windows.

"Look for yourself." She replied, trying again to reach Cosima, whose phone was ringing and going to voicemail for the third time.

"You have got to be joking me. I've had every possible protest group mapped out for a month. Nobody was planning anything." Rachel said, also taking out her cell phone.

"Who are you calling? Cosima isn't answering. Neither is Delphine." Alison huffed.

She peered out of the windows at the crowd. It didn't look like any protest they had seen at an event before. The group didn't have any signs. Usually, whatever the group was against had signs outlining exactly what the problem was, making Alison's job of designating a security level quite easy. Instead a few of them seemed to be holding tiny blue boxes, which from the second story she couldn't exactly tell of what.

"Cosima! We need you to get down to the east side check-in point right away. No, but there is a situation."

"Of course she answers for you." Alison hissed out, still listening to the crowd chant.

"CO-SI-MA! CO-SI-MA!" Continued from outside the building.

"Ugh. Don't they get tired?"

"No, it looks like they don't, do they?" Alison jumped at the sudden voice behind her, spinning around to find Mrs. Sadler suddenly too close in her personal space.

"Didn't mean to frighten you, love. They're not protesting the event, they're supporting it." The woman answered, looking slightly behind her at Sarah before giving a nod.

Sarah stepped up, pulling a tablet out of her side satchel.

"Nobody mentioned to you that Dr. Niehaus has quite the internet presence then, yeah?" Sarah brought up a page, showing the screen to Rachel and Alison.

"Cosima's on twitter?" Alison said, scrolling through the feed.

"And Tumblr, and…Instagram? Is she allowed to post pictures as a government official?" Rachel asked, keeping her voice even, although clearly she had also been clueless as to Dr. Niehaus' preferred internet hobby.

"Yes apparently she is, and I have my assistant, Sarah, here constantly checking online for any activity surrounding the conference. It seems that Cosima posted that she was meeting with Mr. Falls and Mr. Shellington right before the closed-door sessions started. Within ten minutes there was a Facebook group calling to crash the event in support of what her followers expect to be an arse-kicking of the most hated multi-nationals present." Siobhan explained.

"Well, what do we do?" Alison asked, still unsure of Mrs. Sadler's role in all of this, and further, her role in the conference in general.

It hadn't gone unnoticed by the Governor General that Siobhan wasn't actually present at any of the panels that afternoon, instead having a private room where she seemed to be holding private meetings. The room had a gold seal outside on the room order.

The gold seal, of course, represented that the room had been reserved by the Prime Minister himself, for official business, and that Siobhan's meetings were invite only. Alison sized up the older woman, unsure if she was sent to keep them safe, or if she needed to be watched.

"Sarah, would you go retrieve Cosima from her current meeting room? They should be about wrapped up by now. Make sure you get her down here before she tweets her victory." Sarah nodded, turning to jog to the elevators, leaving Mrs. Sadler alone with Alison and Rachel. The woman did a quick look around to make sure nobody else was listening to them before continuing.

"I don't want to alarm either of you, but there is also a slight chance that the group outside has been infiltrated by agents from uninvited countries looking for a way in, looking for information on R607." If Siobhan had not been so focused on getting this information to Alison, she would have noticed Rachel's eyes go wide for a moment, before settling back into her signature coolness.

"What's-"

"You don't want to know. But if you two end up outside, and anybody out there mentions it, you need to come find me. Understood?" The two women nodded, checking back outside of the window.

"Are they…holding boxes of Pop Tarts?" Rachel asked.

* * *

Evan waited for it. He waited, and waited, and waited, each moment causing him to become further impressed.

He knew logically at some point during the triple burger with bacon that Tony had ordered, that the man was opening his jaw wide enough and chomping violently enough that at some point, he would have to get lock jaw. They were at the point where Evan only continued to accept Tony's invitations to take meal breaks together out of sheer fascination for the man's oral capabilities, and for what had been demonstrated so far as a stomach of steel.

Halfway through this particular burger endeavor, Tony still managed to open his jaw with the skill of an Amazonian anaconda. Evan immediately pulled his salad closer to his body, making sure not to keep his arms anywhere near the giant black hole that was Tony's mouth.

It was uncanny, if not defying the laws of nature. Evan was so enthralled by what was occurring right before his eyes that he was only half-listening to Tony's story.

"Then she threw everything this chick owned out of the second story window, just as I was getting out of the car to come get her. I mean everything," Tony explained while popping fries between burger bites, "clothes were coming out of the window, DVDs, she threw this chick's friggin' strap on out at her head, a teddy bear, some figurines…I mean, you've probably seen the video."

"Actually, I have not. I'm afraid I'm not surfing the web so much these days." Evan answered slowly, giving Tony enough time for another giant bite, expecting _this _to be the one that finally locks down the whole operation.

Amazingly, it was not, as Tony's mouth yet again opened wide enough to continue the meat-laced reverse burger-birth.

"Well, I think the nightmare that I just described is self-explanatory. Apparently, that is how Cosima breaks up with someone for not texting her back for a day. A day, bro. Do you see why we can't let them get any closer?"

"I'm afraid I do not see. They naturally pull towards each other. They are like north and south-pole magnets, or cheese and bread, or dust to the vacuum." Evan answered, watching another bite.

_He must have had a jawbone removed. Otherwise this would not be humanly possible._

"Look, I know you're all 'it's Valentine's day all the time in Paris, weeeee', but in real life, Cosima is extremely sensitive when it comes to women, and it's always a blow out. I, for one, would like to avoid that."

"I would as well. That is why we have to make sure that they do it right."

"Or, not at all." Evan rolled his eyes, then giggling at the ketchup on the corner of Tony's mouth as the man stared back at him. There was something rugged about the American that Evan did find charming.

"You cannot keep love apart, Tony."

"If it means no more embarrassing public spectacles that make the United States Government look like its run by over-emotional teenagers, then yes, it is my job to keep love apart."

* * *

"Cosima! Did you tweet what you were doing at the conference today?!" Alison said a bit louder than would usually publically be acceptable, as Cosima and Delphine made their way down the hallway, being led by Sarah. Siobhan had already returned to her private meeting room, arousing Alison's suspicion further.

Alison could deduce from the giant smiles that Cosima and Delphine wore that everything went well. It apparently had gone so well that Cosima hadn't even noticed that Delphine's arm casually would brush against her own as they walked and talked, an offense that usually would have had Cosima flying off the rails with fifty rounds of verbal bullets.

"Yeah! Of course. Gotta keep the peeps updated. Why? What's the big emergency?" She asked, pulling out her phone and just then noticing the multiple missed calls that came in before she had felt the vibrate of Rachel's call come in.

"This," Alison motioned to the windows, "is the emergency." Cosima took a look outside, before breaking into a giant smile.

"Sweet! The Eco-Tarts came! They must have checked on twitter before…" Cosima had her phone back on and pulled up her twitter account, "…yeah! Here we go. They came down to celebrate us facing off against the two most horrible people I have ever physically been in a room with."

"And why do they bring Pop Tarts?" Alison asked.

"Oh, it's a long story. Short version, a while back we had some crazies meet with me, and anyway once I got ride of them and the story leaked out-gosh! I didn't mean to make it sound like they are the crazies, they're not. They're making _fun_ of the crazies but they're totally on our side so I tweet with them and sometimes give them Instagram updates."

"That's awfully sweet and equally ridiculous of you, Dr. Niehaus. Now, if you could kindly find a way for them to vacate the property, everyone would be much appreciative." Rachel snarled out, although to be fair, a snarl from sober Rachel was her general tone.

"Hey. I've heard you sing in the shower. You don't get to be a bitch to me for having fans."

"Cosima…maybe she might be on to something?" Delphine was careful not to say the words 'Rachel is right', knowing that Cosima would immediately disagree with anything she said after that out of stubbornness. Delphine was quite adept at reading Cosima by this point in their professional lives. "We can't have a crowd out there like that occupying the grounds. Other groups need to be able to freely come in and out of the hotel as well; we're not the only ones who use this building." Delphine said gently, putting an arm on Cosima.

The gesture made both Alison and Rachel's eyebrows shoot up, expecting an outburst from Cosima at the contact, in 3…2…

"Okay." Cosima responded, only making eye contact with Delphine with her response.

"…Okay? So…you're going to get rid of them?" Alison asked carefully, still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Sure. They just want to know that everything went okay, and by okay I mean we sent them back to corporate hell with their tails between their legs, which we did, so yeah, no biggie."

Everyone took a moment in awkward silence, just to make _sure_ Cosima didn't want to add a variant of 'and fuck you' to Delphine.

Nothing came.

"Are you high?" Rachel bluntly stated more than asked.

"Well, yeah, obs, but that has nothing to do with it. Let's go downstairs." Rachel rolled her eyes at the response.

"You want us to go down there…to where the riot is?" Alison asked, her voice reaching a high pitch.

"It's not a riot Alison. C'mon." Cosima turned to walk towards the stairs. "You too, Delphine." Delphine looked surprised for a moment.

"Ahh, but they are your…ah, Tarts? What do you need me for?"

"Well, we _both_ kicked ass today. Let's go give them the update to take back to the States." Delphine shrugged, moving towards Cosima.

Rachel pulled Alison a bit behind and to the side.

"Something very strange is going on here." She whispered, watching the two women continue to interact without a hint of one trying to trip the other on the way down.

"Yes, Rachel, I too have eyes. And we're going to find out what it is. After we get Cosima's goddamned pet hippies off of the lawn."


	8. Out Cold

Chapter 8

Cosima stood in front of the others at the large glass doors leading out into the back gardens, currently overrun with amateur and presumably some professional ecologists, chanting while holding up their Pop Tart boxes. Dr. Niehaus paused for a moment, while her thumbs went flying over her cell phone, the screen swiping so fast that nobody could even look over her shoulder to see what was going on. While Alison and Delphine sunk back, seemingly intimidated by the large group, Cosima took the lead, puffing out her chest, putting her phone back in her purse, and throwing open the doors.

The crowd cheered, recognizing their idol. Cosima stopped to autograph Pop Tart boxes, then taking a selfie with a group of young men with matching dreadlocks on her way to the center of the garden, hopping up to stand on the fountain.

"This is ridiculous. We can't even get some countries to show up to this, and Cosima sends out one tweet and half of the North American youth population is here." Alison complained, rummaging around in her purse for her lipstick-disguised flask.

"Well, she does have the ability to draw you in, you know?" Delphine said, willing to inch out past the doorway, but not into the actual crowd.

Rachel locked eyes onto Delphine, noticing how fixated she was on Cosima in the center of the group. As soon as she saw the blush when Cosima looked back, making eye contact with Delphine before addressing the group, Rachel knew she was onto something.

She had found what would be her source of entertainment for the night. Possibly, the rest of the week.

"You'll all be happy to know that Fat-Cat Falls and Shit-For-Brains Shellington did have the nerve to show their faces here, and we expect that they are packing to leave as we speak!" Cosima rallied the crowd, pausing for the expected cheer that came in full force. Tony sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He would have to have the entire PR team on his phone in the next ten minutes to undo the public shit show that would be the aftermath of that comment. Cosima gave the cheering a moment to die down before continuing.

"Even though they didn't put up much of a fight, knowing they didn't actually have a leg to stand on, it wasn't something that I took on alone. I'd like everyone to meet the representative from France, who assisted me in making it _very clear_ that no nation present here would consider re-legalizing already-banned toxins."

"Oh no, Cosima, what are you doing." Delphine said to herself, only heard by Alison, Rachel, and Tony.

"I believe she's dragging you into the spotlight." Rachel said smirking. "I'd recommend wiping the drool off of your mouth before actually standing next to her." Rachel smirked out, pretending not to notice Alison take her lipstick-sized shot.

"What?" Delphine snapped out of her daze in staring at Cosima, just in time to hear her introduction.

"Everyone, meet my conference buddy, Delphine Cormier!" Cosima announced, turning to see Delphine frozen in place with Alison and Rachel actively pushing her forward.

Delphine tried to move her limbs from their surprise paralysis, having difficulty taking in, feeling a panic attack beginning.

Delphine Cormier _never_ gave public speeches, or spoke at press conferences. She only spoke in front of a group of people in court, which was a world away from the public eye circus Cosima seemed to exist in. She had terrible public speaking anxiety, immediately feeling the cold sweat and dizziness from her increased heart rate, a physiological response that she knew meant there was a fifty-fifty chance of her either standing in place forgetting how to speak, or simply vomiting up breakfast.

She knew that her frequent refusal to appear in public, instead pushing that off on assistants and government representatives, made her come off as arrogant. She had heard the murmurs amongst her colleagues that she was too "high and mighty" as a "big shot" government bankrolled attorney to do her own press conferences, but as her heart was racing as she inched closer to the edge of the cement fountain Cosima was standing on, she remembered why she never made public announcements.

She remembered, as she looked at the crowd and the flashing of cameras as she felt herself start to pass out.

* * *

Delphine woke up in her hotel room with a splitting headache. She had fainted before, but she had no idea why her head hurt so much, quickly moving her hand up to feel and make sure she hadn't literally cracked her skull open.

"Hey, hey it's probably not good if you move yet." Cosima said, appearing with a towel full of ice, gently guiding Delphine to keep the ice on the right side of her head. Delphine winced, immediately feeling the ice on a tender spot. "Well, you were only out for like a minute, but you still might have a concussion or something."

"I'd like to ask 'what happened?' but I think I have a pretty good idea. I knew I was going to pass out but there was nothing I could do about it." Delphine said, taking a deep breath to temper the throbbing pain from the side she must have fallen on. "I guess now would be a good time to tell you about my public speaking anxiety." She added.

Cosima sat carefully next to her on the bed. "Well, you didn't exactly hit your head from the passing out part…" Cosima said, trailing off.

"No? I must have passed out. Yes, I was in the garden, and then I woke up here."

Cosima's mind returned to ten minutes earlier, when she had just barely caught Delphine in time to ease her onto the ground.

"_Right. Moving a body. She eats like a bird; she can't be heavy. No need to alert the emergency station." Rachel said, positioning herself at Delphine's feet, ignoring the crowd. She had every intention of keeping the newspaper headline at 'French Representative Faints, Recovers Immediately' and not venture into 'French Representative Taken to the Hospital Amongst Hippie Crowd Chants'. _

"_Rachel, no. I'm calling the emergency station." Tony ran over to persuade the two women not to touch Delphine._

"_No, we've got this. We're good. I do Pilates." Alison said, picking up Delphine's top half, while Rachel went to grab her legs. "We're not wearing heels today. Tony, run and get a medic and meet us in the room." The two hoisted the body up awkwardly._

"_Alison that is NOT-"_

_Alison and Rachel had managed to move Delphine exactly three feet, before the woman slipped from Alison's grip, hitting her head on the large potted plant by the doorway. _

"_Ooops…maybe we should wait for the medic." _

"You know what?" Cosima thought, knowing the others would be back in a minute. "Now that I think about it, you did go down pretty hard." Cosima hoped her smile would cover up deciding _not_ to disclose Alison's idiocy. "The medic said she would come back once you were awake, so she should be checking on you in a few minutes."

"Thank you. I'm sorry I ruined your rally."

"Hey, you didn't ruin anything. If anything, I'm sure the organizers will be pleased with how easy it was to disperse the crowd once they were told to clear out because of the fainting."

Delphine moved her free hand not holding the ice up to cover her face in embarrassment.

"I don't do well with crowds."

"I didn't know." Cosima thought Delphine just couldn't be bothered to address the press or give speeches. She wondered how much Delphine really kept to herself.

"So…you stayed behind to watch over me?"

"Something like that." Cosima chuckled. "It is kind of my fault. I guess every time we share a room I'm going to end up mildly injuring you." Delphine laughed, wincing at how it made her head feel.

"Cosima," Delphine paused, looking at the woman who was sitting next to her. She saw Cosima looking back at her inquisitively, trying to cover up her concern. It was sweet and terrifying all at once. "I know that just calling a truce while we're here doesn't erase everything that's happened, you know, I mean…with us, but-"

"Delphine, we don't need to go there right now. You're injured." Cosima was suddenly looking away.

"It's probably just a bump. But for us, it's just...we never talked-"

"Let's not go there right now, Delphine. Please." Cosima was suddenly very interested in the curtains, then the crème colored wallpaper, and the tiny stain across from them that she hadn't even noticed before that moment, anything to not look Delphine in the face when she was taking the conversation into deep, choppy, uncharted waters.

"Okay. Not now. But…thank you, for staying with me." Cosima turned back at the less threatening gratitude, nodding.

"No big deal. Again, sort of my fault. I didn't even think to ask you if you were okay with being thrown into the middle of a crowd." Cosima jumped at the knock at the door.

"Medic!" Came the shout from outside.

* * *

_Switzerland, 4 Years Earlier_

Cosima was still catching her breath after a massive orgasm, feeling her body pulse. Delphine had played her like a pianist in concert, building her up, backing off, then building her up again, devouring her body with an attentive concentration that threatened to break Cosima to pieces if the sought-after pleasure hadn't followed. When it did follow, Cosima didn't know if she was passed out, or simply visiting another plane of existence, but it shook her inside and out, hands staying gripped in the sheets.

Cosima felt the cool rush of air, as the body above her slipped out, putting on a bra and panties, before slipping back in, whispering something softly in French, as she felt herself being pulled over to rest her head on Delphine's now clothed chest.

She steadied her breathing, enjoying for a moment the feeling of long, slim arms wrapping around her body. As soon as she had feeling back in her lips, she began placing kisses along the bra line. When she didn't feel the blonde's body tense and push her away, she kissed along the line harder, moving herself half on top of the soft body.

Delphine took in a deep breath, enjoying the feeling for a moment. When she felt Cosima's tongue dip underneath the fabric, she snapped back to reality, opening her eyes.

"Cosima." She said, looking down at the mess of dreadlocks draped over her torso.

"Mmm." Was the response, the woman still working her mouth.

"Cosima." She said again, moving her hands to guide the woman's mouth away from her body.

Cosima sighed softly, crawling up to cradle Delphine's head with her arm, propping herself up.

"Delphine, what are we doing here?" She asked bluntly, eyes darting around the other woman's face, trying to read her. The problem was that when Delphine Cormier didn't want to be read, she gave nothing but mixed signals, if any signal at all.

"We are…giving in to carnal desires, I believe."

"It's not just that." Cosima said, pausing for a response that never came. "Do you not like to be touched?"

"It's…it's not that simple." Of course, she liked to be touched. Every nerve ending in her body was on fire. But she knew what would happen if she let Cosima touch her. The moment Cosima was inside of her, it wouldn't just be physically, and Delphine wasn't sure she had any heart left in her to break.

She wiggled her way out from under the smaller woman, sitting with her legs swung over the side of the bed, putting her head in her hands. She felt two arms wrap around her from behind, placing chaste kissing along her shoulder.

"Delphine, you can't do this to me. You can't act like this is just mindless fucking when you know it's not." She went back to the kissing, hoping to relax the woman to get some kind of answer from her. She felt more than heard Delphine's long exhale. "Do you like what we do?"

"Yes. I promise, Cosima, you are not the issue here. But we are only here for a few more days. What else are we suppose to do?"

"Is that the issue? You don't do long distance relationships?" She rubbed along the woman's back, still holding her with one arm, feeling the woman's breathing become difficult. Cosima knew they had purposely avoided this conversation. They avoided it at every meal they ate with each other, every study session, every night merging their bodies, every morning waking up together. The third body in the bed was always the weight of the conversation they refused to have.

"Cosima, I don't do _relationships_. Not just long distance. Not because it's you. I just _don't._"

And there it was. It was the answer that Cosima had been fishing for, one that she immediately decided wasn't good enough. She took a moment to just caress the skin beneath her fingertips, trying to decide what she wanted to say next.

"I'm not trying to push you into something. I mean, I can't say I would jump into a relationship either. But there's something here, isn't there?" She asked, not liking the shaky vulnerability that introduced itself to her voice. Delphine stood up, putting on the rest of her clothes.

"Yes." Delphine answered, looking at Cosima for a moment, before finding her shirt.

"Then why are you getting dressed?"

"I'm getting dressed _because_ there is something here. Because I do like it, Cosima. Because I want you to touch me back. And once you do, I'm not going to want you to stop. I'm not going to want you to stop ever, whether we are in a relationship in this room together or in a relationship across the Atlantic. And I'm leaving because if I go any further with you, there will be a point where you will stop."

"You don't know that-"

"I do. I know it because that's how these things always go, isn't it? I'd rather have a good time with you and have to be sad for a few days over a goodbye, then become even more wrapped up in you than I already am, and then when it's over end up broken for months." Delphine grabbed her jacket. "I can't do this, Cosima. I can't do it again."

"Delphine!" Cosima said, seeing the woman fighting back tears before moving for the door. "Delphine!" She called out again, hearing the door click shut.


	9. Planting the Seed

Chapter 9

_Switzerland, 4 Years Earlier_

Cosima waited up, taking a long, hot shower to encourage alertness. She wanted to be awake when Delphine came back into the room. She turned up the water until she could see the steam floating out over the shower curtain and stepped in.

She had no idea what she was going to say to Delphine. That she was sorry? No, she realized she didn't have anything to be sorry for. Developing feelings for someone after sleeping with her was definitely not apology-worthy.

Should she just tell Delphine she understood, and back off? Just give up? If she were honest, they did live on different continents. How would something even work?

Then again, she was so busy with life in general that she didn't have much time for dating anyway. As frequently as she would be able to talk to and actually see Delphine was probably as often as someone in the United States. Or was that the issue; that a part-time long-distance relationship is what wouldn't be enough?

She couldn't just demand that Delphine give her a chance, even on uncertain terms. Or could she? If she were being honest, she'd at least want a "let's see where this takes us", instead of a flat-out, "this is going nowhere".

She thought about what Delphine had said to her. She couldn't promise her that she'd never stop, but she could at least say for sure she wanted it to start.

By the time she was as clean as she could possibly get running scenarios over in her mind, she hopped out, putting on sleep clothes, with no idea what she would say to Delphine. She climbed into bed, turning on the television. She may not know what to say, but she would have to say something.

Unless Delphine didn't come back, of course.

Which is exactly what happened. Delphine didn't return that night, or the next night. By the third night, she decided she was going to go find Delphine.

* * *

_Present Day_

Tony knew the difference between Cosima _asking_ him for something and _telling_ him the way things were going to be. The difference was, when Cosima asked him for something, she was actually telling him how things were going to be, only making it sound polite.

When Tony heard the knock on the door to his much smaller, single bedroom, he figured it was Cosima giving him an update.

"Hey! Would you mind if I kind of chill in here to get ready for later? I don't think I should be in the room with Delphine trying to ice her head. Thanks!" She answered for him, bringing her briefcase in with her, to which Tony could only roll his eyes as she pushed her way in. He wouldn't have argued anyway, since she sounded like her blood pressure at the moment was high enough that he might have to put the medic station on speed dial for the night. Or, worse case scenario, and Evan was right, and he was witnessing sexual tension.

_Actually, _he thought, _this is a good time to begin Operation Keep Cosima and Delphine Apart_. He smirked to himself.

There was no way he was letting them get together, only to have to stop Cosima from initiating nuclear war with France once Cosima decided that Delphine chewed her food too loud or didn't get her enough flowers for their two-month anniversary.

Tony shuddered at that Cosima break-up memory. She had actually not only had him count the flowers in the bouquet, but the petals on each flower, creating a spreadsheet to run a "she loves me, she loves me not" algorithm. He had decided at that point he had enough of the reality show he called in his head "nerds in love".

"Yeah, take all the time you need. And if you need to get ready in my bathroom, feel free. You know I only take like ten minutes. Gotta make sure the pony-tail is straight." He winked.

"Oh, is Tony wearing a pony-tail tonight? So you're getting dressed up for night two? You know what night two is, you _should_ be dressed up. It's a big event. I look forward to this one all year." She answered, starting to shuffle through folders.

"Exactly. Why do you think I need my hair pulled back. And my sleeves up. I'm wearing a shirt so that I have sleeves to roll up. Nobody's getting in my way." Tony said back, noticing Cosima loosen up considerably at the banter.

"That's my guy! Remember, this is primarily why I hired you. Not this scheduling meetings bullshit. That is secondary."

"I know! Best job in the free world…which reminds me - I think strategically, for night two, it's best if we sit with the British delegation. Mrs. Sadler is sitting with them too; I guess she's agreed since Northern Ireland didn't come to the Summit this year. It would be a good opportunity." Tony said insistently.

A little too insistently. Cosima figured that her intelligence gathering skills had indeed gotten better over the years, or Tony was just being obvious that he was hiding something.

"For strategy, of course." She challenged him, looking up from her files.

"Yes. You see, their table is going to be on the far side of the room, but we both know that most of the UK delegation is physically slow. We'll have no problem dominating them. Mrs. Sadler is sure to be quicker, but I've arranged for a distraction."

"You've already planned this, then? We're abandoning Al, Rachel, and…Delphine," She said carefully, trying not to say the name with distain out of habit, "in the name of strategic alliance? Okay who are you and what have you done with my assistant."

Tony paused for a moment, taking in a breath while biting his tongue. He figured it wouldn't be that easy. He had to cover his tracks. Quickly.

"Strategically, the Limey table is better. But…I also don't want to sit with the others, okay? Can we just leave it at that?"

"Ummm let me think," Cosima said, pausing to put her fingers on her temples for a moment, squeezing her eyes shut in mock thought, "No. We cannot leave it at that. What is going on?"

"I…" _Shit, she's really going to figure it out if I don't think fast, "_I think they're not good for us to be around…not like, your friends, your friends are great," _shit, now I'm just going to piss her off, "_It's—Evan. I don't want to sit with Evan, okay? He's getting on my nerves, and I've already spent a lot of time with the guy."

"Oh. That's it." Cosima said, pretending to agree. Meanwhile, she wasn't actually buying a word that was coming out of his mouth. "So Evan's bothering you?"

Tony nodded, starting to rummage around his drawers to have something to do with his hands, and also to have an excuse not to make eye contact with Cosima.

"Well, if you don't mind me asking, what is he doing that's so…bothersome?" Cosima probed, watching Tony's nervousness.

He appeared nervous alright, not making eye contact, and pulling out clothes, holding each item up to his pants, then checking the combination in a mirror. To Cosima, he certainly appeared to suddenly care a whole heck of a lot about his appearance while supposedly not sitting with Evan.

"He's just all 'oh, weeeee weeee, we drink wine all day in France' and proceeds to follow Delphine around like a lost puppy. It's like bro can't think for himself. Doesn't it bother you that she kind of leads him around like he's on an invisible leash? And he just rolls over and takes it? And what kind of a guy eats salads every single day? And did you know that he does yoga? Seriously. I almost walked into him in the hallway this morning as he was wearing his man-dex. I didn't even know they _made_ spandex for men. And I think I should get to say if I don't want to sit with someone. And…he has stupid hair. Nobody needs that much gel. So I don't want to sit with Delphine and Evan. You know what? I'm changing my shirt." Tony said, still not making eye contact. He grabbed a different shirt and stormed into the bathroom, sliding his back against the door and exhaling, hoping he had thrown enough of a tantrum to cover his track and keeping Cosima away from Delphine.

Cosima sat silently, eyebrows raised. Then, she pondered Tony's outburst and sudden need to put on a better shirt.

_I can't believe…Tony's completely head over heels in love with Evan! _She smiled to herself. She'd let Tony keep his feelings to himself for a bit, but there was no way she was just going to let this slide.

* * *

Evan sat next to Delphine on the bed, as the medics finished their check and left. Luckily, she didn't have a concussion, but she was told to expect a nasty bump on the head.

"How do you feel? Do you need some more aspirin?" Evan asked, taking his boss', and really his friend's hand in his.

"You are very sweet, Evan, but no. I am fine. I didn't faint from a disorder, it was just the rush from the anxiety. I don't even need to lay down anymore." She said, starting to get up.

"No, you heard them. A little afternoon rest is good." Evan said, trying to convince the woman to take it easy.

The two looked at each other in quiet contentment.

"Okay. A little rest. I should be fresh for night two. It's a big deal, no?" She agreed, setting herself back on the pillows.

Evan smiled. "It is. I've been training for night two since we accepted the invitation." Evan, of course, had never been to a Summit, having worked for Delphine for just under a year. But he had heard the stories, and he was prepared.

Delphine laughed. "I have full confidence in your abilities, Evan."

"So…" Evan started, trying to sound casual, "Cosima stayed to check on you?"

"She did." Delphine said carefully, then pausing.

"That is kind, no? She stayed behind to make sure you were alright."

"I guess she felt bad that she pulled a publicity stunt not knowing what it would do to me. It's okay. I'm not angry. And yes, she was very kind about it."

Evan paused, not sure how to proceed, or even how to suggest that she stayed behind for more affectionate reasons.

"Ahh, guilt. It is probably not just guilt. I think she can be a kind person, even under the eccentricities. Like Tony. You know, how he's always trying to do the right thing; very by the book. I believe Cosima is like that a bit. Maybe rough on the edges, but loyal and kind." Evan said, hoping he was making some sort of sense.

"I guess so, yes, like Tony." Delphine paused. Cosima and Tony really were quite a bit alike. They made a good team. But why would Evan bring up Tony for comparison? "I suppose yes, kind and loyal could be both Cosima and Tony. But you have to understand, I have seen a side of Cosima that is less than loyal…I don't really want to get into it. But Tony certainly."

_Oh no, _Evan thought, _this is not going how I wanted it to go._

"I think we should try to sit with them tonight." Evan said. "You know, make sure she understands that she was kind, and since you two seem to be getting along maybe giving a little thank you?" Evan said, getting quiet.

"You want us to sit with them so I can say thank you? I can text her that much. And we're also sharing a room later. Besides, I figured we would sit with Alison, since she has the head table and we were invited. I don't know if Cosima and Tony were invited to the same table or if they've planned on sitting elsewhere." Delphine said, surprised at the suggestion. It's true, on night two there were no assigned seats, but certain table allegiances were unspoken.

"Well, think of it as a gesture for a gesture. She stays by your side to make sure you are okay, and you and I sit with them and maybe work together tonight?" Evan said in a voice that stayed professional while still conveying 'pretty-pretty please'.

"Evan, I cannot just ask Alison to invite specific people to the table. You don't know how Alison gets on night two, or Rachel for that matter. I know you weren't here, but I'm fairly certain one of the two of them stabbed someone from the Israeli delegation and had it covered up."

"I thought that was just a rumor." Evan said, his eyes going wide.

"And outside of this room, you're going to continue thinking its just a rumor." Delphine said seriously. "Now, why don't you tell me why you really want us to sit with Cosima and Tony? Is me saying a quick 'thank you' in private not enough?"

Evan started to turn red, feeling the flush showing his embarrassment at his rejected suggestion. He hadn't expected any actual difficulty. He had planned the conversation would go smoothly, then while Delphine was getting ready casually suggest one of her more expensive perfumes and offering to do her hair in that way that he knew drove everyone, single or taken, wild.

This was most certainly not the plan.

"Well, I guess I am being selfish. But besides you, I only really have one other friend here. I wouldn't know what to do at this point without Tony." He said quickly, hoping it would be a sufficient cover-up. He _really_ hoped it worked, because his back-up plan was to send thank you flowers to Cosima and just sign Delphine's name to the bouquet.

Delphine noticed the blush. She also noticed his hesitation, before the conversation went back to Tony yet again.

She almost smacked herself in the head with realization, before remembering that her head was bruised. Instead, she settled for a smile back at the fidgeting man.

_He is in love! He is so in love with Tony that he can't think of not seeing him tonight! Of course!_

"Oh. Well why didn't you just say so? I can casually mention tonight to Alison and feel out the table arrangements. I can't make any promises though, but if I know Alison, she likes to make sure friends get to stick together, right?"

Evan let out an exhale that he wouldn't have to spend half of their conference budget on the biggest bouquet he could order on short notice. He noticeably relaxed.

"Well then. Now that that's settled, what shall we wear?" Evan said, bouncing off of the bed.

Delphine smiled as Evan hopped around the room. Of course, she couldn't say no to budding love, especially for someone as dear as Evan.


	10. Night

Chapter 10

Tony realized very quickly that he had made a big, big mistake.

The young yet eager assistant learned very quickly that when one is a guppy, the guppy most certainly should not voluntarily try to swim with the sharks.

He and Cosima sat awkwardly across from Siobhan Sadler, who now had two assistants with her, seeming more like Secret Service agents than assistants. He doubled as Cosima's security detail, of course, as most high-level assistants did. He was media damage control, dealing directly with PR, HR, and the head of Russian environmental control whom Cosima less-than-affectionately insisted on referring to as "USSR" rather than her actual name.

However, sitting across from two agents in all black with earpieces and tablets that had 3D image capabilities made him feel less than adequate. Whatever these three dealt with on a daily basis seemed way more complicated than keeping Cosima out of trouble between meetings on water shortages and contamination safety standards.

As the easily identifiable guppy of the table, one might think that Tony would keep his mouth shut. However, seeing how _not_ intimidated Cosima was by the trio only made him want to talk more.

"I'm going to get a drink before everything gets going. Does anybody want anything?" Tony stood up, addressing the table.

"Sure. Wine it is. Better grab a carafe." Cosima said, before turning back to a hushed chat with Sarah.

"None for me, thanks. I don't drink at work." Siobhan answered. Tony looked down, noticing the woman's water. He nodded, not realizing that night two was supposed to technically count as work.

"Don't be silly, Tony. We don't fetch our own drinks. What is this, the Middle Ages again? Shall we also venture out later to the outhouse and perhaps have a sip of bubonic plague?" Felix immediately pulled out his tablet, pulling up what shot out as a 3-D hologram about the size of a cell phone screen of the maître d' station.

"Oh hello, Felix. Calling so soon? I didn't picture you as the clingy type."

"You can order from your phone-computer-space command thingie?" Tony said, standing frozen in place. This guppy was clearly _way_ out of his league.

Felix simply rolled his eyes, continuing his conversation. "What if I were the clingy type?" He gave the digital image of the man a wink, causing Mrs. Sadler to roll her eyes. She did recognize that she needed both assistants for night two, yet somehow had forgotten what dragging Felix along was like.

"Well, you're not the clingy type, so why don't you tell me what you really need."

"Straight to the point then. I like a man who's aggressively to the point. We need a carafe of—"

"Dry white." Cosima answered when Felix's eyes met hers.

"Right. Dry white, and one of a blush, and that barbaric slop that Sarah drinks-"

"Oi! Beer is not barbaric slush, princess. And say that to me again after I've had a few." Sarah shot out, quickly turning back to Cosima, who she was chatting with like new friends at a school lunch table.

"Right, the non-barbaric slush, and I suppose an iced tea for Mrs. S."

"Coming right over!" The man answered. It took a moment of Tony still staring at the device bewildered before he realized that everyone was staring at him, waiting for him to sit down. He turned red, sitting before embarrassing himself any further. He waited until the three Euros turned into an internal conversation before poking Cosima's side for her attention.

"You didn't tell me that Europe has space age technology and shit. You could've warned me."

"Hey, this was your idea. But it's good, I'm glad I'm getting to make more friends. But if you aren't enjoying yourself, you can go sit with Evan before we start." Cosima said teasingly. Tony turned toward the adjacent table with their actual friends, noticing Evan looking at him with a tremendous puppy face, clearly not liking the wrench he threw in the Frenchman's efforts to encourage the two women to spend more time together. Tony sighed. He could handle a few surprises if it was to keep Cosima's heart far away from the woman he suspected, if Evan were right, who could tear it to shreds and use it as a taco filling.

* * *

_Switzerland, 4 Years Earlier_

Cosima knew she wasn't supposed to be creeping around the training campus at eleven o'clock at night, even though there wasn't a technical "lights out" time, it was heavily implied. She really was curious at this point where exactly Delphine had been sleeping the last two nights. She had to be around somewhere, since she clearly had been stopping back at the room at some point each day to shower and change, presumably after Cosima left each morning. With only one more night before they were parting ways for good, Cosima had no idea what she was going to say to the woman, but she knew she couldn't leave things the way the were.

The problem was that she had no idea where Delphine would go. If she were in another student's room, she would have no way of knowing. She couldn't just start knocking on people's doors. Instead, Cosima quiet and discretely as possible walked through every common area that had a couch to see if the woman was pretending to have casually fallen asleep on one. Wherever she was, she had noticed that Delphine had not taken a pillow or blanket from the room.

When the couches turned up empty, she started checking training classrooms. Cosima was actually surprised that everything was unlocked. She didn't think that Delphine would literally curl up in a corner with no blankets, but she had to at least try to find her.

Then she had a twinge of guilt bubble up, picturing in her head the woman sleeping in a hallway somewhere, using a couch cushion as a pillow. She felt then maybe she had pushed too much. She vowed to herself if she did find Delphine, she would make sure she at least had a bed and a blanket. What she really wanted was to kiss her goodnight, but she really doubted she would get that far after whatever was about to happen actually happened.

Unbeknownst to Cosima, Delphine was actually quite cozy, using her travel hammock kit tied up in a tree outside. Delphine had slept that way many nights before even coming to training, enjoying sleeping under the stars when the skies were clear, giving her a crisp view of the constellations. Even on nights that would be considered too cold to do it, Delphine still would sometimes drive out to the country wearing four or five layers, and climb up a tree to sleep, the green and gray camouflage always leaving her presence unknown. Delphine had always been sort of a loner, and learning to become stoic to mask her social anxieties hadn't meant that interacting with a lot of people was actually easier, she just started hiding things better. She preferred a quiet night under the stars to a party or a bar many times.

And it was in this precise situation that she had been staring up at the stars for the third night in a row, contemplating if she should go talk to Cosima.

Cosima had been right. She couldn't pretend that something wasn't there. And it was the idea of something being there that terrified her. The way she felt touching Cosima, talking to Cosima, kissing Cosima, even simply sitting next to Cosima listening to the woman's laugh shot such energy through her that it brought up terrifying emotions that she had been trying her hardest to avoid. After her last time being dumped, she had come to the conclusion that the problem wasn't the women she dated. The problem was her.

_How many times do I have to do this before I learn my lesson?_ She thought to the stars. _What is it about me that makes everyone want me in the beginning, but not be able to love me?_ She tried to think. She thought she was a good person. She wasn't mean to her partners, or selfish, or unattentive. She thought she was attractive, kind, had an exciting career. Maybe, she thought, she was too career driven, but then she had also dated other driven individuals and the careers were never a reason for the break up.

She couldn't put her finger on it, what made her ultimately unlovable, but she believed it to be true. Completely. She had somewhat accepted that women would always be attracted to her, drawn to her even, but that once it was serious and it came to settling, she wasn't the one that any of the succession of women-of-her-dreams ever actually wanted. Eventually, she connected the dots back around in a logical manner. The only thing her relationships all had in common were her. She had decided then, that she must be the problem.

She continued staring at the stars, contemplating the belief that she was somehow inherently unlovable, but not able to figure out why. She stared at the formations light years away, as though they would eventually show her a sign or confirmation of the reasons running through her head why nobody ever loved her completely—enough to keep her.

She started running out of reasons, running her mind back to Cosima. At the very least, she knew she had to apologize to the woman who had done nothing wrong. She owed her that much—an apology for shouting, for storming out and avoiding her, for leaving her naked and alone after being with her. That was when Delphine noticed the flash of light coming from behind her hiding spot.

She carefully turned, being mindful not to make any noise. She saw the hallways with motion sensor lights—the ones she had been careful to avoid each night when sneaking outside—turning on, and a figure walking through the hallway seemingly unaffected by the light pollution interruption to what was an otherwise quiet, dark evening.

She could see the figure clearly in the window. Small, feminine figure, and dreadlocks. Delphine sighed. She knew it was probably now or never.

She climbed down, leaving the hammock, but covering it with a branch so as not to give away her bunking spot. She then quietly climbed down the tree, making her way back to the east side of the building, taking a path that she knew was outside of the motion sensors. She wasn't technically breaking any rules, but she also didn't want anyone aware of her choice to make alternative sleeping arrangements, much less if someone were to find out why. That would be a sure-fire way to make sure she was going back to France without her certification.

* * *

_Present Day_

Alison sat at table number one, the coveted table closest to the action. She scanned her competition. She didn't consider her own table competition, of course, since Rachel had begun calling the evening "the hunger games" hours earlier, solidifying herself as Alison's complete soulmate as a partner in crime. Having Evan and Delphine there was also strategic; while she was friends with them, they were also light and therefore easy to knock down. She barely turned an ear when the President of Chile introduced the evening.

"I'll make it short, since I know you're all excited." Her Excellency began her speech, causing Rachel to raise her eyebrows and glance at Alison, still scoping out the other tables.

"And how, exactly, did you manage to get the Chilean President to promise a short speech? Last year the woman went on for twenty minutes!" Rachel asked, doubting the authenticity of the woman's statement.

"Well…" Alison paused, before lowering her voice, " I may have threatened a trade embargo."

"Alison!" Delphine exclaimed. "How much trading does Canada even do with Chile?"

"Enough that she's going to keep it short and sweet." The woman answered, taking a casual sip of her wine, while narrowing her eyes at the Nordic table.

It seemed to Alison that Norway and Sweden had some type of bubbling fountain at their table. She scanned her mental picture of the rules to see if they were breaking any still looking at them through squinted eyes, and if Delphine's perception skills were still up to par, a little growl slipped out.

"Rachel! Do they have—a butter fountain on their table?" Alison said, openly pointing to the Swedes.

"Damn! Brilliant idea. That's going to shave seconds off of their line time by skipping the butter station." Delphine and Evan both turned their heads, noticing the table did indeed have a butter fountain. She saw the table of men and women in suits beaming in pride at their idea.

"It's fine. I'll take care of it." Rachel patted her side, which seemed to house a hidden stick of some sort-somewhat like a hammer, but not quite.

"What is that for?" Evan asked innocently.

"In case I need to trip someone." Rachel's voice dripped with the venom of someone who was dead serious.

"Good work, Rachel. Okay team, listen up. We are still a team. I mean, I will trip, stab, and publically sanction any of you who get in my way, but we are still a team. No, an army. We are an army and this is _war_." As Alison started her speech, Delphine's gaze wandered over to Cosima's table, which she had been trying to avert her eyes from the entire evening.

The blonde had been slightly taken aback when she had asked Alison about the table, and Alison had advised her that Tony already insisted that he and Cosima were sitting with Siobhan Sadler and her assistants. When Delphine had questioned why Rachel wasn't sitting with her fellow countrymen, Alison had simply shrugged her off, insisting that the arrangements were already made and they would have to do without Cosima for an evening.

She wondered if she had embarrassed the woman by passing out publically. She had a little twinge of guilt, then hurt. She hadn't _meant_ to cause a scene, after all. And as she watched Cosima chat with Sarah easily, the table gathered around some sort of fancy cell phone device that Felix was bringing up images on and laughing had her feel…

Jealous. Delphine was jealous, recognizing full well she had no right to be. The two were forced to share a room, and they were nothing more to each other. Delphine couldn't even say that a forced truce would even qualify them as friends; she knew they were only sharing a room in the first place because it was supposed to "foster an environment of shared friendships between the nations", or something else to that effect that Alison had blabbered on and on about when calling each country to invite them.

But as she looked at Cosima laughing and chatting away so easily, she couldn't help but notice how easy it was to be drawn to the woman. Her charismatic nature, her smile, her dimples when she smiled, and the way her eyes lit up when telling a story or laughing at a joke. She wasn't doing it consciously, but she tensed up anytime anyone made any sort of physical contact with Cosima; any pat on the arm or playful bump on the shoulder. She had a vague idea of what she was feeling, but refused to acknowledge it fully, even in her own head.

Delphine's daydream gaze was only interrupted by the speech that was winding down.

"Now, for all of you new to night two festivities, the rules are printed on your seating cards at your table. And now, my friends from across the globe, you may get up, _in an orderly fashion_, for ALL YOU CAN EAT SEAFOOD NIGHT!"

As soon as the woman finished her sentence, nearly everyone in the room was on their feet, ready to bolt to the side of the room with tray after tray of shellfish, shrimp, crab, and a variety of fishes. The chaos and noise was immediate, nobody noticing the chairs being knocked over in the frenzy.

Rachel stood up with the mob, raising her tripping stick in the air, "THIS IS SPARTA!" She shouted, before running straight for the crab.

"SPARTA!" Alison yelled, running behind Rachel, with a napkin already tucked into the collar of her shirt.

"Oh, crab mallet. Right. Not really for tripping." Evan said, looking at what looked like a looting and pillaging scene unfolding before his eyes.

"Evan, I promise you, Rachel will indeed use that for tripping. She started using the mallet a couple of years ago on all-you-can-eat night two, and well—she is why China doesn't come anymore. We better get in line before Rachel and Alison beat off everyone and inhale the contents of the Atlantic Ocean. Also, we are here to make sure they don't kill anybody."

Evan laughed, before he noticed Delphine was not laughing with him, as he turned his head and found a pack of delegates that had brought their own serving tongs to get through the line faster, who Rachel was already threatening with the mallet.

At that moment, he considered that Delphine might have been serious about the seriousness of night two.


	11. Eavesdropping

_Author's Note: Oh my goodness. Everytime I say to myself that I'm going to take a week or two off from writing, I can't. It's like being asked to keep a secret when you want to blurt it out REALLY LOUDLY, so here we are, another update! Thanks for reading-and it seems I really can't stop myself until this is done!_

Chapter 11

_Switzerland, 4 Years Earlier_

"A little late for studying before the final, isn't it? Although I do admire your tenacity." The voice behind Cosima in what she had thought was an empty room caused her to jump and promptly spin around, finding herself face to face with the Academy Director, who they only knew by her initials: M. B.

"Yeah…sorry. Nerves, you know. Thought it would be better to walk it off. Sorry." Cosima motioned to leave, noticing that the taller, older woman was blocking her path.

"Dr. Niehaus, I think now would be a good time for me to request some honesty. Would you sneaking around the campus at night have anything to do with your bunkmate not returning back?" The woman was intimidating, there were no two ways about it.

Fear flashed through Cosima's eyes, noticeable enough to M.B. that it bothered her. The woman already thought that Cosima Niehaus was too emotional, showing her emotions too easily, to ever really be of intelligence use. The problem was, the woman was highly intelligent, highly instinctual, and even though her degrees were not in computer science, she was a wiz with technology. Her colleagues insisted that Cosima pass.

Unless, of course, Dr. Niehaus admitted to a sexual relationship with another student, a relationship that was so blatantly obvious M.B. wondered at what point they might just prance out to the central lawn and stage a wedding.

"Oh, that. She's a grown woman. It's up to her if she wants to stay out all night before the final. Not me. Just going to take my walk, then hopefully get some sleep." Cosima couldn't even cover her nerves. She was doing such a bad job that she felt it in the way the woman stared back at her.

"Cosima, I'm going to be frank with you, and let's agree not to insult each others' intelligences, alright? I believe you are having an illicit relationship with your roommate. The fact that the noises that generally come from your room at night have stopped mysteriously once Ms. Cormier removed herself from the room is suspicious indeed." M.B. narrowed her eyes.

_Oh Holy Shit. _Cosima thought. _This is the moment where she kicks me out, and I go back and explain to the Vice President that I couldn't complete training because I couldn't keep it in my pants. My career would be over. I would be finished. Think fast. Say something. Convince her that's not what's going on_.

* * *

_Present Day_

Cosima scanned the room, watching as it seemed everyone had gotten up in a rush all at once, leading the young scientist to contemplate what at stampede would look like in the event of a real emergency, not one involving shrimp cocktail.

She couldn't believe how easy it was to motivate an entire room into what should have been an embarrassment. Judging from the way Alison kept eyeing the crowned prize of the feast, the lobster at the top of the three tiered seafood castle at the end of the buffet, she knew Alison was going to go for it again.

The prized lobster guaranteed bragging rights for a year, usually with a prize in the center for the winner to wear. The catch was, one could only take the lobster once the entire buffet was cleared, and given the size of the feast, it would be a feat indeed.

The year before, Italy had scrambled to the top while Alison was still fighting with her last crab leg, which when flying across the room in anger at the defeat. The representative from Italy then took out the ring from the center, demanding that anyone who wished to address him for the rest of the conference kiss his ring first. He also kept a claw, which he would occasionally pull out of his pocket and waive around to taunt Alison with it.

That was the point when the Governor General had gone from a simple representative to War General, vowing never to sit through defeat. She spent the year training, visiting all-you-can-eat buffets at least once a month, carefully learning how to stretch the stomach lining. If she lost this year, Cosima wasn't sure exactly what kind of meltdown might occur, but she was torn between not wanting to see it and wanting to see it badly for the entertainment value. She had already named the lobster and began referring to it as "Gary, my lobster" whenever night two came up in conversation.

Cosima watched the shouting, pushing, shoving, and what looked like tripping on the part of Rachel and Alison, she and Siobhan Sadler seemed to be the only ones not bothering to rush up.

"Better hurry, love. They say the only way to survive a massacre is to jump head first into the massacre." Siobhan said, in that way where Cosima could never tell if she were offering Sun Tzu level advice, or merely yanking her chain.

"Nah. I never really liked the idea that we have an all you can eat seafood feast while there's a blatant global overfishing crisis. I'll wait until the body count is a little higher. Not hungry?"

"Of course I am. But that's what assistants are for." Mrs. Sadler pointed to the front of the line, where Felix and Sarah managed to sneak through completely untouched, piling up plates. She watched, impressed, as they made their way back to the table, dodging the fights around them without spilling a single shrimp. Nobody really knew what Siobhan did, but Cosima was now adding "ninja trainer" to the list of possibilities.

Cosima eyed the woman, sighing.

"You know what I want to ask you, but aren't going to out of politeness." Cosima ventured out, not seeing another opportunity where she would be alone with the mysterious woman.

"Ah, that. Then I'll make the answer short and simple: My job is what keeps all of you alive. Best you leave it at that."

Cosima noticed the way the woman stared right at her as she spoke, not even blinking. Cosima decided then that Siobhan Sadler was never joking when she spoke.

Right then, Felix and Sarah showed up with plates, placing them in front of the older woman.

"Empty-the-Ocean special, table one." Felix said, sitting down and taking out his compact, starting to powder his nose. Tony, he noticed was right behind them, having taken advantage of the pair's ninja skills to slip in and out of line, only grabbing items that fell into Tony's two food groups: things covered in bacon, and things potentially cooked in bacon.

"Assistants don't eat in England?" Cosima asked.

"Oh, we ate already. Mrs. S. took us out for steaks. I'm not a big seafood fan." Sarah answered, leaving Mrs. Sadler beaming proudly.

_Feeding the assistants first so they fetch your food. Tony has no idea how good he has it_. Cosima hoped Mrs. Sadler's ninja skills didn't extend to reading her thoughts.

* * *

"You should go say hello. Show them that you're feeling alright." Evan whispered to Delphine, who had no problem moving through the line at a snail's pace, letting the others knock themselves out ahead of her, seemingly in no hurry. Just because there was an all you can eat option didn't mean she intended on gorging herself.

"Evan, _I share a room with her_. What part of that don't you understand? I'm going to see her later, whether or not I want to." Delphine answered, glancing back over at the table, seeing how long Cosima had been left alone with Siobhan. She didn't know what they were conversing about, but from the fact that she could only see Siobhan's face, she didn't like whatever it was one bit.

She knew why Mrs. Sadler was there, but of course couldn't tell the others. She also trusted the woman, having worked with her on several occasions. But something about her saying something so-serious, potentially threatening to Cosima didn't sit well with the attorney. Delphine was again snapped out of her staring by Evan.

"Look, if I may be blunt-"

"Is there a time when you are not blunt, Evan? And might I add, you are getting a bit, dare I say, pushier than usual?" Delphine said, watching Tony sit next to Cosima and the table conversation carry on.

"Well, you never really told me."

"Told you what?" Delphine said, waiting for the two in front of her to stop fighting over serving tongs, then calmly adding some mussels to her own plate.

"Why you hate her so much. There's some history there, no?" Evan said quietly, watching Delphine's hand pause mid-serve.

The woman let out a long exhale, then paused to look around. With the fighting, shouting, the rest of her table already back with piles of crab legs over their heads with no end to the line in sight, everybody was too busy wrapped up in side conversation to listen in on anything she had to say. She also estimated given how long the buffet was, and how long it was to wait patiently at each stop, they had quite some time before getting back to the table.

"Okay. I will tell you. But understand if you say anything to anyone, you will end up like that gentleman." Delphine pointed to the representative from Thailand, currently being strangled with his own tie by the representative from the Netherlands.

* * *

_Switzerland, 4 Years Earlier_

Delphine had been careful not to set off any motion sensors outside of the building, and was being careful to take a root inside not covered by security cameras. Once she approached the room Cosima was in, she heard another voice in the room with her. She peeked around the corner, noticing there was indeed a second, taller shadow near Cosima's.

Delphine's eyes went wide. She closed her eyes, steadying her breathing to conceal her presence, all while straining to listen. She couldn't hear who the other person was, and couldn't tell gender from the shadow. She thought perhaps another student, or a night staff member. Either way, she didn't want to have a serious conversation turn into a three person exchange, so she stayed hidden.

"What?! No. Absolutely not! I would NEVER with Delphine Cormier. Are you kidding me? I have a Ph. D., she's barely out of law school. If you're going to accuse me of things, at least pick someone up to my standard. She's not even attractive."

Delphine couldn't believe what she was hearing. She still couldn't see who Cosima was talking to, and didn't recognize the hushed voice, but Cosima's voice was loud and clearly identifiable. She held her spot for a moment, trying to quiet her own heartbeat as she felt the pounding sound climb up into her ears.

"So because I'm gay, you think I'll just sleep with anyone? That's insulting, especially when you try to insinuating that I would do _anything_ with Delphine Cormier."

She opted not to listen to anymore, instead leaving the building on the side again with no motion sensors, sitting down with her back against the brick wall.

_This is why you don't do this, Delphine. _The blonde fought tears, reminding herself that by taking off on Cosima, she had clearly made the right decision. What she hadn't counted on, though, was the reality of hearing those words from Cosima's mouth and how it would immediately make her limbs go numb.

She didn't know how long she sat there, before pulling out a cigarette and lighting up. She figured at this point, she didn't need to conceal her location if anyone was out and about, since clearly there were at least two people aware she wasn't in her room.

She had gotten through her third drag before a tall shadow appeared in front of her.

"Smoke break? I can't say I blame you. The night before finals can be stressful." Delphine recognized the voice immediately as M.B.'s direct tone. Delphine froze, hoping that the woman did not know that Cosima and someone else were also out at night; once person could be out for a cigarette, three people would be suspicious.

It only took Delphine another inhale to conceal her emotions. She immediately was able to blink away the start of tears that had formed, glazing her face over with an unreadable expression, if anything was even visible in the cover of night.

"Smoking is not against the rules, as far as I know. Otherwise I've broken the rules about forty-seven times so far and nobody's said anything to me." Delphine answered calmly, not giving away a hint of the conversation she had overheard.

Delphine couldn't see it, but in that moment M.B. smiled. Cosima was never good at controlling her emotions, but Delphine was stoic on command. She was an intelligence gathering dream, as far as the Academy was concerned. In a one-on-one intelligence combat, M.B. was certain Delphine would always win, even if she wasn't as gifted with technology as Cosima.

"Tell me, Ms. Cormier, have you gotten along with your roommate, Dr. Niehaus during your stay here?" M.B.'s eyes had already adjusted to the darkness, and were watching Delphine's expressions carefully.

"Is a roommate ever an ideal situation? I suppose it wouldn't be prudent for the Academy to make single living quarters. Cost, space issues. I suppose in our futures there would be times when we would be sharing rooms with colleagues from other nations as well."

M.B. noticed Delphine's answer was to pose a question to her question, and not actually answer the original question. It gave the blonde the ability to formulate an answer, without giving away any personal inclinations. The answer pleased M.B. to no end.

"Then I suppose you're not particularly attached to Dr. Niehaus?" M.B. pressed further, watching the woman's face.

Delphine's face kept back any emotion. If they were conversing about someone Delphine even personally knew, an onlooker would never be able to tell.

"Attached? Am I continuing on to work with her from here?" Delphine's question didn't show a hint of emotion either way. Delphine had every emotion one could possibly feel on complete lock-down. She knew M.B. would not be able to tell from her tone everything she had just experienced in the last ten minutes.

M.B. then had her answer. Delphine Cormier was perfect for what they needed.

"Delphine, I'd like you to come with me. You won't necessarily be working with Dr. Niehaus from here, but there is a project that I would like you, and _just you_ to jump into." The woman held up her hand to help Delphine up from her seated position. "Walk with me. I'm going to tell you about a Top Secret project known as R607."

From that point on, Delphine knew she would never speak voluntarily to Cosima Niehaus again. She didn't speak to her the next day, returning to shower, despite Cosima's protests and attempts to talk to her. The fact that she had heard how Cosima _really_ felt, or so she thought, only solidified that not only did she not want to continue anything with the woman, but she now felt a deep anger bubbling up at just the sound of her voice, before she finally exploded as they packed up for the day.

Cosima pleaded, even begged. She begged to know why the blonde wouldn't even _talk_ to her. Dr. Niehaus' nerves were still a little more than shaken by her encounter the night before with M.B.; she needed to know that she hadn't just risked her career for someone who could just toss her away.

"No, Cosima. We are not going to talk. We are not talking because-"

"Delphine-"

"No, you don't need to talk. There is nothing here. Find someone else to scratch your itch. I don't want to hear from you again. I don't want you touching me, or talking to me. You were a few weeks of fun, and really, that wasn't even all that great." Delphine stopped during her explosion, as they stood with their suitcases packed. "And I would rather sleep with a dog than so much as exchange a phone number with you. I am better than this, better than what you have to offer." Delphine said, the venom continuing to spew from her lips.

She had seen the hurt in Cosima's eyes, refusing to believe it was an emotion the woman could even feel. All she could think about were the words she had over heard.

_Not good enough because I don't have a Ph. D.? What is that? I'll let anyone fuck me, but beyond that she needs to have credentials? _Delphine was still seeing red when she stormed out, slamming the door with Cosima still standing, shocked, on the other side.

* * *

_Present Day_**  
**

Evan paused, jaw dropped open in shock once Delphine had finished the story. Evan had originally smiled, nodding along as Delphine allowed the assistant to hear that they indeed had a romantic history, until she relayed what she had overheard come out of Cosima's mouth.

While the room continued to grab, poke, and swipe at the food around them, Evan simply stood in surprise, spoon in mid-air.

"Evan, don't look so surprised. You know how I feel about her."

"Yes, but…I suppose I never imagined that could be the why. I'm so sorry, Delphine." Evan finally started to come back to reality, replacing the spoon to its proper tray.

"Don't be. It was years ago. And it was foolish of me to get involved with her from the beginning."

"That doesn't justify what she did." Evan turned his head slightly, squinting to shoot daggers at the back of Cosima's head, a death glare that luckily she wasn't turned around to see. Evan vowed at that moment the opposite of his original mission: that he would not let Cosima Niehaus anywhere near Delphine as long as he was around. Considering what Delphine had just told him, the woman should consider herself lucky she was alive at the moment.

"Evan, I want you to know that no matter what Cosima may have done in the past, that doesn't mean that you can't still be…friends, yes friends, with Tony." Evan's head snapped back around at the way Delphine had said 'friends'. She said it with the inflection that meant—

"Oh no, no, no, no, no. No 'friends' with that tone. Just friends, as in friends who sleep in separate beds." Evan said, turning somewhat red. He thought back to insisting they sit together.

_Of course she thinks that, you fool!_ Evan felt very foolish for trying to push his boss towards Cosima in the first place, but now he felt even more foolish.

"You know, Evan, I make it a point not to meddle in your business-"

"There's nothing to meddle _in, _so-"

"And he is handsome, yes? And what was the word you said? Loyal? An attractive quality."

"But I don't-"

"You should go stop by and say hello. That's really what you meant when you said I should stop over, isn't it? Don't let me keep you. Go say hello. Tell them I'm alright." Then Delphine leaned in to whisper, "Use that as your icebreaker. He's a sucker for making sure everybody's safe."

Then Delphine quickly spun away with her plate before Evan could even answer.

"But I'm not even gay!" He said to seemingly the salmon croquettes, since Delphine was already gone, leaving Evan in a bewildered stare.


	12. Tight Spaces

Chapter 12

Delphine quickly put her cell phone away, pushing her second plate away before finishing its contents.

"Hey! Lightweight! Unbutton the top of your pants and keep eating. Is this a game to you?" Alison said threateningly, herself halfway through her fourth round.

"I am sorry. I think a trip to the bathroom might open my appetite back up." Delphine answered, getting up from the table.

"Good call, Cormier! An empty bladder means more room for shrimp." Alison took the woman's explanation, returning to shoveling food in her face while staring down the Norwegians. The two men stared back, as they chewed angrily at their seafood-nemesis. She only snapped out of her chewing trance from across tables when she heard a slip and thud directly behind them, turning to find a young assistant flat on her back in a pile of shrimp tails.

"Ooops. You should watch where you're going." Rachel said nonchalantly, throwing another tail over her shoulder to add to the pile. Alison looked down at Rachel's shell-moat, blocking the clearest path to the buffet for the farther tables, grinning, before looking back up at Rachel.

The two locked eyes, before sharing an evil scheming grin that terrified Evan from across the table.

"Maybe I should go say hello to Tony…" Evan said, getting up and backing away with his plate slowly.

Over at Siobhan Sadler's table, Cosima had been chatting feverishly with Sarah, genuinely having a good time, ignoring Felix and Tony's back and forth exchanges as banter, rather than the actual hatred that it was slowly developing into.

Cosima felt her phone vibrate, looking down at the text before putting it back in her pocket.

"I'll be right back. Ladies room—I mean, washroom. The loo? Whatever. I'll be back." Cosima said, heading towards the restroom. However, it was not lost on any of the Brits that the young American suddenly had to use the restroom after glancing at the cell phone. Sarah waited a moment, then made a move to get up herself, before Siobhan waived her off, pulling Sarah into a whisper.

"Don't follow unless she takes more than a minute." The older woman quickly whispered, before turning back to Tony and Felix, ignoring the huff that Sarah let out.

"So, you're an assistant, but you do the work of a secretary, a security guard, and a personal valet. And all for one person's salary. Tell me, does she also tell you when you're allowed to use the bathroom and what to wear?" Felix shot out, resting his face on his fists, elbows both on the table, taunting Tony as he eats.

"One very nice salary, actually. I have no complaints. And I am allowed to actually eat at these events, not function as the community pool boy, so…"

"Tony! May I sit for a moment?" Evan said, suddenly appearing, looking over his shoulder nervously at Alison and Rachel, who were now sharing a maniacal, evil laugh, and it quite frankly creeped him out to no end that he didn't know what they were cackling about.

"Sure…I guess."

* * *

Delphine waited in the last stall, hearing the other women who were in the room leave. She continued to wait patiently, until she heard the door open and someone walk in, then the tell-tale "shave and a hair cut" knock, as she instructed.

Delphine pulled the stall open, pulling Cosima in quickly then shutting the door.

"What's going on? What's the big emergency?" Cosima asked.

"Cosima, I needed to tell you something, and before you tell me I'm crazy just hear me out." Cosima nodded, eyes wide. What could possibly have the blonde so wound up she needed to meet her in secret?

"Cosima, I think that Evan and Tony are in love with each other."

"Yeah, I know."

"No, before you stomp all over this, let me explain. It's not just one thing, it's how Evan is about Tony all the time."

"Yeah, I see it too. From Tony's side-"

"Just give me a chance before you say no! You should have seen him a few hours ago. He was going on and on like a lost little puppy about wanting to sit with you guys-"

"Funny, Tony had the opposite reaction for exactly the same reasons."

"And he turns red whenever I bring what we're doing with you two up. And…I don't know it's a lot of little things, but my observation skills are excellent."

"I believe you."

"Just listen! I know Evan very well, and I know when he's hiding something from me, so before you shoot my ideas down-"

"Delphine! I'm _agreeing_ with you!" Cosima said, letting the statement click, her eyes lighting up.

"You believe me!"

"I just said that ten different times—boy, you really only hear what you want to hear." Cosima huffed.

"I'm sorry, I just sort of assume the worst but hope for the best?" Delphine said, suddenly feeling embarrassed, looking down at her wringing hands. She looked up for a moment, realizing they were in very close quarters in that stall. She was close enough to smell Cosima's perfume.

"So we're both aware that our assistants like each other. What's the big emergency?" Cosima asked in a low voice, sensing the shift in Delphine's energy, but not quite able to put her finger on what it was.

"I think that, you know, it would be nice just to give them a little nudge. If not, Evan will hide in his shy embarrassment for the entire trip and never work up the nerve to actually say anything." Delphine was still wringing her hands and looking nervous.

Cosima observed the woman as she spoke. The way she seemed so innocent, the way her eyes lit up when she talked about their little man-crush moments, the way she would sometimes make eye contact with Cosima before looking away the next second. Cosima had to admit: it was terribly cute. She had only seen Delphine let down her guard and show emotions on a few occasions, and it was always, she noticed, when they spoke alone.

"I didn't realize you were suddenly such a sucker for love." Cosima had meant it playfully, but as soon as the sentence left her lips, she saw Delphine's expression become serious, both having their history smack them in the faces simultaneously.

"Well, I'm afraid that Evan will miss an opportunity…because of me." She felt more than saw Cosima shift closer to her, if that was even possible in the small space. Delphine was ignoring the toilet paper roll that was protruding into the back of her legs, not having any more room to back up. She had no choice but to inhale more of Cosima's scent, sharing the same air as her.

"Because of you?"

"Yes, well, two things. First, Evan is quite the closet case." Delphine as seriously as one might have expected something more along the lines of 'Evan is a murderer' or 'Evan is the evil mastermind behind R607'. Cosima paused before laughing.

"Ahhh, so Man-dex is in the closet, huh?" Delphine joined Cosima in the giggling.

"Yes. I actually tease him about it quite a bit. He's a good sport, but he really thinks I'm kidding, even though I've seen him check out men while out with women. He might be hopeless." Cosima and Delphine both bust out laughing, Cosima leaning forward and putting her head on Delphine's shoulder as her own shoulders shook from the laugh.

Cosima had to admit, it was adorable that Delphine thought her assistant's crush was worthy of an emergency meeting. She pulled her head back up, keeping her wide grin.

"Alright. Evan's a closet case. Check. What's the other thing?" Cosima noticed Delphine's smile fade, as she went back to wringing her hands.

"Ummm, well that part is…shit." Delphine paused for a moment, feeling Cosima's body retreat back by about an inch. It felt like a mile.

"The problem is Tony is always with you, yes? He's your assistant; he's supposed to be. But Evan isn't going to want to go near you two. I've tried to get him to go over and talk a few times tonight, he kept refusing."

"Because he's nervous?"

"Because I told him a bit…about us." Delphine didn't have to explain further. Specifically what about the two of them was clear.

"I wasn't terribly detailed, of course, but before I opened my big mouth, I forgot how Evan can be." Delphine looked up, hoping Cosima wasn't going to be too angry with her for sharing something that was clearly, up until that night, private.

"And how is that?" Cosima no longer had her smile, but she didn't seem angry either. She was..neutral, as far as Delphine could see, which actually scared her more.

Usually, Cosima was an easy read. She wore her emotions outwardly. Even if she wasn't dripping with a particular feeling, Delphine could still always see _something_; an angry squint, a hidden side smile, a fearful swallow. However, now she was registering nothing.

"He—he's going to refuse to spend time with Tony because he knows then that I'll go talk to you, and he doesn't want to encourage that after…"

"Kay. So he does know we share a room, right?"

"Please do not remind him of that fact once we're back out there. We might end up with Rachel and Alison as permanent roommates. He really is doing everything he can to block me from even talking to you."

"Wait—_I'm_ the one he's blocking? He's not trying to block you from me?" Cosima's short stint at being unreadable was over.

"Well…"

"Funny. I'm starting to wonder just what version of the 'us' thing he got. For the record, I told Tony too-"

"You did?" Delphine looked up, surprised.

"Yes. Before we came down here. And notice that he's not blocking anybody from anybody else. He's just eating—well, technically, that's what Tony's doing ninety-percent of the time, but…damnit, Delphine! What did you say to him?"

Cosima moved the inch back in, but this time it was intimidating. Delphine suddenly felt very, very bad about sharing what she did with Evan.

"Well, he knows that we have a history," Delphine paused, looking up at Cosima, who nodded for her to continue, "And he knows that I sort of flipped out on you and stormed out—not too detailed, of course, but he knows," She paused again, noticing Cosima's face subconsciously moved closer and was only about three inches from her own at this point, listening intently, "then he knows what you said about me the night before we left."

"What I said?" Cosima asked, looking genuinely confused. She searched Delphine's face for any clues, waiting for the woman to explain.

Cosima's stomach was doing flip-flops in the interim. She was becoming intoxicated with being this close to the woman, but hadn't forgotten the history that they were so carefully until that point tip-toeing around. She was amazed how differen the air felt simply being physically in proximity to the woman who had come within a hair's breath of breaking her heart four years earlier.

"I heard you. The night before we left. You were in a room with someone else; it was one of the classrooms." Delphine said quietly. It took a few seconds for the reference to click in Cosima's mind.

The woman paused. Cosima exhaled, knowing what she was referring to. She remembered every last horrible thing she had said about Delphine Cormier. She remembered because it had killed her to have to say it. She had wanted to scream at M.B. to leave her alone so she could find her lover, she had wanted to announce her actual feelings. She wanted the opposite of everything that had happened that night and the next morning.

"You really do only hear what you want to hear." Cosima said, pausing for Delphine to look at her. Once she had the taller woman's eyes locked with her own, she continued. She looked into the woman's hazel pools of doubt and worry, taking them in before continuing. "You heard me say those things, but didn't think to ask why?"

"The why doesn't matter." Cosima noticed the woman move to lower her gaze, catching the blonde's face with her right hand, holding her head to keep her gaze.

"Delphine, the why _does_ matter. When we were being intimate with each other, is that what I was saying?" Cosima held the gaze, hoping to engage the woman further, knowing that Delphine would be fighting with every fiber of her being to run away. She kept her hand on the woman's cheek, keeping her focused on their conversation in the noticeably tight quarters of the bathroom stall.

"No, of course not-"

"And the next day, when I tried to talk to you, is that what I was saying?"

"No, but-"

"No buts. You heard me say a lot of things, and that's the one you chose to latch on to. This is a lot less about anything I said or did, and more about what's going on in here." Cosima moved her hand up to tap on the side of Delphine's head. "This isn't what you think of me, but this is about what you think of you."

Delphine was stunned. She knew Cosima was an easy read, but she had never had someone simply look into her eyes and read her completely; it was that complete way that terrified her the way she was terrified way back when she stormed out, leaving Cosima for their last few days.

It was clear to the blonde that she was going to have to carry on terrified, she couldn't just run away once her heart started pounding again. Cosima moved to place the hand on the wall of the stall, effectively trapping the woman so she couldn't escape the conversation.

"And what do you think of me?" Delphine asked, bracing herself for the worst. She expected to see hatred bubble up in the shorter woman's eyes, and was surprised when that wasn't what she saw at all.

"I think…that I like it a lot better when we're speaking to each other instead of hating each other. But I also don't trust you. You have to understand that, right?" Cosima asked, her voice dripping with a soothing tone that Delphine knew she had no right to receive.

"I do." She heard Cosima exhale.

"Good. Because that hurt. It hurt me a lot. But what I really think—Delphine, everything you heard me say that night?" Cosima said, backing up to put more space between them, causing Delphine to raise her eyebrows in question.

"Yes?"

"Everything that I think is the opposite of that." Cosima moved back further, and simultaneously moved her hand down to Delphine's arm, giving it a squeeze, before turning to open the stall and walk out, leaving Delphine frozen in place.

It took Delphine an extra minute after the exchange to collect herself, walking out to splash some water on her face, before drying and exiting.

The occupant of the first stall only then flushed, once it was clear the room was empty. Sarah was careful to wait an extra minute, so as not to give her presence away, in case either of the women had chosen to linger outside of the door.

"It seems there is a history indeed." Sarah said to her reflection in the mirror, taking a moment to retain as much information as she could from what she just heard.


	13. Trust

Chapter 13

Alison intended to chew every last bit of Gary the Lobster while staring down a member of the Norwegian Storting through slanted eyes, the very member who had previously been so proud of his butter fountain. The man stared back, his lip twitching out of the anger of defeat.

The trouble was, Alison was beyond full, using _Lamaze_ breathing to power through the pain.

"That's it, breathe. In, in, out." Rachel coach from Alison's side.

"Alison, you don't have to finish it. You already won by getting to it." Delphine said, sitting back down at the table.

Rachel and Alison simultaneously shot Delphine a look that made the attorney do a quick visual search for escape routes.

"She _has_ to finish it." Rachel hissed.

"She's right." Alison said, painfully swallowing the remainder of the tail meat. "Only then can I absorb its power." The woman continued, looking chillingly serious.

"Ah." Was all Delphine could say, nodding along. The blonde realized that in all of her training as a spy, as an attorney, as a diplomat…nowhere had she been taught how to deal with the absolutely, clinically, possibly criminally insane.

"Keep breathing. You're doing tremendously well." Rachel said, patting Alison's head with a cool towel.

Evan slipped back in next to Delphine, seeming unfazed by the self-hazing process occurring before them.

"So…" Delphine started, sounding innocent enough for even to know there was nothing innocent about what she was about to say.

"Don't. We were just talking for a moment." Evan said, shutting the soon-to-follow question down.

"But you were _just_ talking to-"

"I know who I was speaking with. Do not make a big deal about it." Evan said, looking down at the cake he had picked up for dessert.

"Okay." Delphine said, leaning back. "If it's something so secret, so special, so heartwarming that you can't even mention it-"

"We are going out together tomorrow." Evan said quickly, hoping to stop Delphine's incessant teasing.

It worked. The blonde paused, before cracking into the largest grin Evan had ever seen, the woman immediately crushing him into a hug.

"It's not a date or anything. But if it will make you stop this nonsense…" Delphine only squeezed him harder, overjoyed at the prospect of Evan actually having a love life.

Delphine opened her eyes while hugging Evan, peeking over his shoulder back at Cosima.

What she saw she did not appreciate.

Not. One. Bit.

* * *

Cosima was flipping through her YouTube, showing some channels she liked to follow to Sarah. The two were giggling over an episode of _My Drunk Kitchen_, sitting close to each other so they could both look at the tablet. Everything seemed fine until Sarah put her arm around the back of Cosima's chair as they watched the videos, her hand making contact with the woman's shoulder.

It had only taken a flat four seconds from the first hand-to-shoulder contact before Delphine was suddenly back at Cosima's side, moving Sarah's hand off of the shoulder and tapping it for Cosima's attention.

"Heyyy…" Cosima said, trailing off as she turned to see Delphine at her side. She was surprised, since they had just spoke a few minutes ago. She didn't expect to hear from Delphine again that night, since the evening was winding down.

"Hey." Delphine answered back, pausing for a moment to compose herself.

When Cosima had first turned around, she saw a look on Delphine's face that she didn't recognize. Now, she watched as the tall woman blanked her face out, erasing whatever emotion was threatening to show through.

"Can I speak with you again for a moment?" Delphine asked politely. _Too_ politely, as far as Cosima was concerned. It was sweet enough that anyone listening in would think she was just being formal, but Cosima knew it was to cover whatever was actually going on.

"Sure. Here. I'll be right back." She said to Sarah, handing over the tablet.

Delphine led Cosima away from the table, to a corner in the back where desserts were stacked up that only the brave few had any room for, out of earshot.

"What's up?" Cosima asked, looking up at the blonde, naturally moving into the woman's space so they could keep their voices down.

"Look, Cosima. I—I don't want to come across as though I'm overstepping my bounds, but…" Delphine started, thinking of all the things she _could_ say that would scare Cosima away from Sarah, which unfortunately were all the things she under no circumstances was cleared to tell an American about Sarah.

"Delphine, what is it?" Cosima asked, getting a little worried when Delphine just trailed off.

"I just—Cosima, I just hope you know what you're doing when you decide to get so close to Sarah and Mrs. Sadler."

Cosima pursed her lips together, mulling over the statement. _She clearly knows something I don't_, she mused.

In a move that surprised them both, Cosima decided to be bold.

"Is this about the R607 thing?" Cosima said, immediately being hushed by Delphine.

"Shhh—keep your voice down, please!" Delphine immediately looked around to make sure nobody heard what Cosima had just said. "You can't just go around saying things like that, Cosima. You're going to get a lot of us into trouble."

"Fine!" Cosima hissed back in a lower voice. "Just—why should I be weary of Sarah and Mrs. S.?"

"You just said why!" Delphine whispered back, still keeping her eyes shifting around the room.

"No, I didn't." Cosima stopped, seeing Delphine's eyes moving frantically.

_She definitely knows something. _

"Delphine!"

"What?"

"What is it?" Cosima asked, now also looking around the room, while not having any idea what she was looking for, but now doing it out of the anxiety that Delphine's panic was causing her.

"You can't be serious, can you?" Delphine said, her eyes snapping to lock onto Cosima's, no longer checking the room.

"I am. What is R-"

Delphine's hand snapped over Cosima's mouth before she could say it again. "Shhhh. Not here. Do not ever say that term in the common rooms." Delphine whispered, taking her hand away.

"Why not?"

"Because the room is bugged."

* * *

Cosima and Delphine started walking outside in the cool night air, having went up to the room to change into more casual clothes to walk around away from the rooms that were being monitored.

Cosima jammed her hands into the pockets of her light jacket, admittedly feeling a lot more comfortable in her sweatpants instead of the more formal clothing she had just shed.

"Soo….about that whole R607 thing." Cosima said, once they were about two blocks from the hotel.

Delphine did a quick scan of the area behind them, making sure nobody followed them out. She figured they would just look like two friends stepping out to get some air, not like a powerful international attorney and government agent about to break a whole bunch of rules.

"Yes. That. So I assume that you were sent to find out about that from me as much as I was sent to find out from you." Delphine said, deciding to be frank.

"Umm, no. I only just heard about that R whatever from Siobhan. What do you mean sent here?" Delphine stopped walking for a moment, cocking her head at Cosima.

"You _really_ don't know?" Delphine asked, more to herself than as a genuine question.

The blonde resumed their casual walking pace, mulling things over in her head. She knew the only way to show Cosima that she could trust her would be to put trust in the smaller woman first; she knew she would have to give some to get any trust back.

"Cosima, that is what this conference is really for. The environmental sciences is a cover for Siobhan to hold meetings about the R607 project."

"Bullshit." Cosima said immediately, not willing to believe that the weeks she spent compiling reports and PowerPoint presentations were just for an empty shell of a conference.

"No, it's true. I mean, those of us who are here care about the other things we've been talking about as well. But without the need to find out who has R607 and how much it's being used, there would be no real reason to have another Summit so soon after the last." Delphine said, pausing a moment to let Cosima take the information in.

"You know, before I left the States, I had a conversation with the President." Cosima said laughing to herself.

"I would imagine so. I had one as well in France."

"Yeah, but I was telling him that I didn't think it was a good idea to room with you, since we went to the Academy together and you would know what I'm trained for."

Delphine stopped walking again, turning to face Cosima, as they stood at the entrance to a small park, nestled into the center of the large city.

"And what did he say?"

"He said that was _why_ I had to room with you, and that if you happened to let anything that sounded Top Secret-ish drop, I was to remember it and report back. Although, he's going to be disappointed that all I've heard is you trying to set your assistant up on a date, so…" Cosima smiled, motioning for them to continue walking into the park.

"Cosima, I was told I had to room with you to find out when the Americans plan on implementing their R607." Cosima's smile dropped, keeping her face looking straightforward as they walked, even though she could feel Delphine staring at her intensely after the admission.

"Right. So this is the point where if I had any information, you'd sweet talk it out of me, Cormier?"

"No." Delphine let out a sigh, jamming her own hands into her own pockets, mimicking Cosima's body language. "I planned to go back and tell them that you knew nothing, even though I really thought you would have known something."

Cosima looked up at Delphine's face at the admission.

"I believe you." Delphine's eyes met Cosima's for a brief moment, nodding to accept the statement. "Now tell me what it is."

"R607 is a process, or a technique. Technically, its an implantation technique of a microchip so small it has to be implanted using microscopic surgical instruments. It's a means to enhance human bodies into a cyborg state to give one's own agents an upper hand. So far, we know that there is a way to implant a chip in the brain that will let the agent record conversations and play them back in their own heads, controlling the function by thought, and some can record video to the chip with their eyes, and can close their eyes and play the scene back. It really is the most advanced as far as intelligence gathering techniques are concerned." Delphine explained, figuring they were far enough away from the hotel to use a regular speaking tone. Delphine was clearly anxious about the project, speaking quickly, finding herself with faster breathing as they carried on the conversation.

"So this is the big deal? Seriously? Fancy-implanted recording devices? Spies for decades have looked for ways to record conversations. This is nothing new."

"Yes, but _any_ sense can be enhanced, and many of us are worried that mercenaries have gotten their hands on enhanced agents. Cosima, these people can control their touch to burn or freeze another person with their hands. We've received word that those with altered touch and temperature abilities have used it for torture."

"Okay, that's pretty bad. Fair enough."

"Worse—we have word that some governments want to extend the technology to use animals to record, even to cause plants to grow as poisonous. Think about what a weapon of war that would be—to send seeds as an "aid" package, and kill an entire population, making it look like an accident. We don't know if it's possible, but there is word that there are altered elephants being tested in certain regions to be triggered by their enhancements to stampede when they see a signal that triggers them to become aggressive." The urgency in Delphine's voice made Cosima feel the need to keep her own as calm as possible. The gravity of the situation was conveyed more by Delphine's tone than the actual words. To Cosima, it sounded like any other security threat; same targets, different technology.

"Okay, I'm not surprised that I wasn't given that information, given international terrorism is not my specialty. Although I will have to look into what would happen if the technique was used to introduce an aggressive plant species into a region, I suppose. Why didn't you just tell me?"

"Cosima," Delphine started, unable at this point to hide her nerves. "I am one. I am an R607 Agent. And if you tell anybody, there are most certainly individuals sent to this conference who would be instructed to kill me."

"I won't let that happen." Cosima said immediately, her voice having an air of authority and protection in its tone.

"I appreciate the sentiment, but-"

"I won't let that happen." Cosima said again, more forcefully, intertwining her arm in Delphine's as they walked.

Delphine felt every inch of her arm tingle where it was touching Cosima. When she had pulled Cosima away from Sarah out of sheer jealousy, she hadn't intended for this conversation to be what would follow.

She hadn't intended for this conversation to happen at all.

Delphine's thoughts began bouncing around in her head, like a set of pinballs had been let loose, with little flippers slamming thoughts through her head. She was torn between the panic of what she had just revealed to Cosima, and the comfort the woman's arm was threatening to spread. She knew it was a protective gesture, and it was working. They walked for a moment, Delphine working to calm herself down as they slowed their stride down even further.

"I believe you. And I know it's most likely a too little, too late, but—I am sorry. For, you know," Delphine said, peeking over at Cosima, not expecting to find the woman staring right back at her, slowing their pace down, as they passed the occasional pack of teenagers or bench-cuddling couples out for the evening. To everyone else, they were just two regular Joe's, out enjoying the park, "for everything. I've been very selfish with you in the past."

"So you're telling me this because it'll make you feel less guilty?" Cosima asked hesitantly. She looked up at Delphine, only visible by moonlight and the occasional streetlight, seeing all of the features that had drawn Cosima to the woman in the first place.

"I'm telling you this because this affects you too, and I'm not going to be selfish with you again."

Delphine barely had time to finish the statement before Cosima was pulling her lips down, meeting them with her own. She wrapped her arms around the taller woman's waist, feeling her kiss back, agreeing to get lost together for a moment.

All of the tension that Delphine had been feeling from the gravity of what they had just discussed relaxed out, Cosima's kiss feeling comfortable and safe, moving lips together gently, careful not to get too heated, as they were standing on a walkway in a public park.

When they pulled apart, hearing the _tsk_ sound of the lost contact, Cosima gave a half smile-one that was laced with underlying uncertainty, but still trying to convey that she enjoyed the kiss. Delphine's face was similar, her eyes a mix of nerves and joy.

Then, it clicked in Cosima's head that she could actually see Delphine's emotions, the woman wasn't covering up what she was feeling at the moment. Cosima pulled her down for one more quick kiss, before looping her arm back through Delphine's, turning them around to walk back.

"Well, since we're being honest now, I should just let you know that the way you stomped over when Sarah had her arm around me was absolutely _adorable_." Cosima said teasingly, sticking her tongue through her teeth for a moment.

Delphine let out a laugh, turning red.

"I thought I wasn't—I mean..so you could tell?" Delphine stuttered out.

"No. But you just confirmed it for me." Cosima said playfully, giving Delphine a swat, tugging her along back to the hotel.

* * *

They enjoyed a silent walk, occasionally looking at each other, uncertain but smiling, arm in arm, until they were outside of the room.

"Shit." Cosima said, looking in her purse.

"What?"

"I forgot to get my card back from Alison. Do you have yours?"

"Of course I do." Delphine pulled her card out, remembering that she had swiped them in to change earlier as well. She wasn't worried; if Alison has lost Cosima's card they could probably just get another one from the front desk.

"What is that smell? Ugh!" Cosima said, immediately covering her nose. The two walked into the room, finding Alison and Rachel passed out yet again in Cosima's bed, this time with the lobster shell, still in full form, in between them, and the two were littered with shrimp shells.

"Oh not again, seriously?" Cosima stormed over, shaking Alison with one hand, and Rachel with the other.

"Get off, he's mine!" Alison mumbled, rolling over to spoon the lobster between her and the Baroness.

"You have your own room! Get up! And give me back my damn key card!" Cosima said urgently, shaking the pair, only causing them to snuggle Gary harder.

"Forget it. Just get in." Delphine, Cosima noticed, had the ability to change like Clark Kent, seeing her already climbing into the open bed.

Cosima went to the bathroom to change, coming back out to angrily eye the two sleeping women in her bed before sliding in next to the blonde, who immediately curled on her side around Cosima, putting a hand on top of a smaller, soft hand.

Cosima could feel Delphine drifting off to sleep, even over the grunts and labored breathing sleep of the two in the next bed. She allowed Delphine to keep her hand on top, feeling the woman's breathing slow.

_She never falls asleep first_ Cosima mused, watching the blonde drift off.

* * *

Cosima lingered in that stage of not quite awake and aware, not quite asleep. The in-between world was enough to only feel feelings, both present and memory, aware that she was waking up yet again next to Delphine Cormier, only this time, Cosima was openly spooning the woman, becoming aware of her presence with all of her senses.

Everything about Delphine in the bed triggered memories. She had actually been surprised; Delphine's hair smelled the same as it used to; her mouth had tasted the same while managing to feel different. Cosima continued to hold Delphine's sleeping form from behind, enjoying waking up to her scent and remembering another time she had experienced Delphine, much more intimately.

"_Delphine—yeah. Like That."_ _Cosima had gasped out, as Delphine dove between her legs, managing to be aggressive and gentle all at once. _

_Cosima looked down between her legs, seeing Delphine use her hands to spread her lips further, before taking her clit back into her mouth, moaning while doing so. That moment, Delphine went to town—she was sucking, slowly, pulling Cosima into her mouth and taking her time on each pull, sucking while running her tongue along the bud. _

"_So good—so good." Was all Cosima could manage to say over and over again. Every once in awhile, she would strain her neck to look down at Delphine between her legs, seeming to enjoy herself thoroughly, the blonde's eyes closed as she concentrated on her mouth movements, head slowly bobbing, moaning into Cosima's sex while sucking her slowly. _

_Cosima had already learned from their last encounter that Delphine would not be rushed. She never sped up, even as Cosima moved towards her climax, instead pushing her tongue harder on the upstroke, pulling Cosima into a shaking, on-edge mess. Cosima loved watching Delphine work her mouth, seeing her center connected to the woman's lips, the head between her thighs moving with sure strokes. She could see Delphine occasionally let her bud pop out, running her tongue in circles before taking it back into her mouth._

_Once Cosima's legs started to shake, she wanted to feel Delphine. She slipped her hands down, one intertwining with Delphine's, together wrapping around each other while holding her sex spread, the other tentatively going to the back of the blonde's head. _

_The wave that shot through Cosima changed her hands from tentative to desperately gripping, gasping, while her right hand changed to gripping Delphine's hair. The blonde didn't seem bothered, continuing to suck and pull, until Cosima's hips jumped from sensitivity. She stayed, letting Cosima relax the grip on her head and hands, staying to place gentle kisses on the lips in front of her, letting Cosima enjoy the pulsing that continued, kissing as each one contracted._

Cosima remembered vividly what Delphine felt like when the used to be intimate. Waking up with Delphine in bed with her, this time holding her after kissing her the night before stirred up memories that could only be sprung from feeling the blonde against her; from smelling her hair.

She figured Delphine was probably awake and also not moving, just like the morning before. Only the morning before, she had not spent the night before kissing the woman. And now, she was incredibly sexually aroused by a woman she already knew intimately, but felt like she barely knew now. She had certainly overcome a hurdle the night before, but could she really ever trust Delphine enough to go that far again? What were they doing?

Another situation where they were thrown into a room together. Another situation where at the end, the two would be parting to different countries.

Cosima realized, as she lay wrapped around the taller woman's soft frame, that she was in a position where she really had no idea what to do.


	14. ElectricExplosion

_A.N.-I promise to try to update in a timely fashion after this one! Just needed a little break to work on some other projects :)_

* * *

Chapter 14

Cosima spent the morning getting ready in awkward silence, more than once bumping into the blonde, who would share a soft smile, both feeling tense and draw in simultaneously.

The attorney went downstairs ahead to prepare for a big break-out session, leaving the environmentalist to her thoughts.

She could only review what she knew of the situation: that she was still attracted to Delphine, and that she didn't know if she should do anything about it. She figured she _should_ just back off, happy to exchange a few flirting moves here and there before going back to her usual high-stress life.

She also knew herself, even if she didn't know Delphine very well. She knew that the likelihood of being able to back off was, statistically, non-existent.

Cosima was all too aware that she could pack herself with all of the resolve in the world, especially with the new information that not only was there a new project with dangerous implications, but that Delphine was a part of the project, but at the end of the day if she so much as felt the blonde's body or smelled her perfume, that it would all crumble around her with her ideas of existing in singularity.

She grabbed her briefcase, packed to the brim with her evidence against nuclear energy, planning to present alternatives with their studies. Even if the Summit was a sham, Cosima had decided that when they were talking about something she took seriously, she would still present it seriously, hoping that at least some of the attendees were indeed genuine.

* * *

"Are you going to tell me where you're taking me later?" Tony whispered over to Evan, getting their seats in the front row for Cosima's big session.

"Ahh, that. I am taking you on what you may refer to as a journey." Evan said cryptically, grinning.

"Is that your subtle way of suggesting I need to pack a PowerBar?"

"No." Evan laughed, although he now fully expected that Tony would indeed be the type to pack emergency snacks. "I'm going to introduce you to my world, my American friend."

Tony began picturing what "Evan's world" might involve. He immediately conjured images of some sort of contortionist yoga class, followed by a dinner comprised of food prepared by an itty-bitty _hors d'oeurve_ committee, where he would have to find a way to escape to the nearest pub and drink away hours of potent floral arrangements and antiquing.

"Tell you what." Tony started, immediately picturing all of the places he could indeed hide snacks in what he was wearing. "You bring me to your world for the afternoon, but we visit my world at night." He said, turning to face Evan.

The man returned a small smile. "Okay."

"Sorry I am late." Delphine breezed in, seating herself at the opposite end of the long table from Cosima, who was seated closest to the podium at the right. Delphine took her seat at the left end of the table in the front of the room, with a panel of two others in between them.

Cosima looked up, surprised. "You're on this panel…?" Cosima trailed off, studying the blonde.

Delphine nodded. "Of course. This is on energy sourcing, no?"

"Yeah, just you never mentioned anything." Cosima scanned her head, realizing that none of their personal conversations had actually been spent discussing work, an oversight that made her realize just how emotionally wrapped up in the blonde she had become.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I thought it was known. I was on the Heismiser case." Delphine shrugged, expecting this to be common knowledge.

The mention of the case made Cosima freeze in place.

_The Heismiser Case_. Cosima thought for a moment, before tensing. _That was the case arguing for routine use of nuclear energy for power after the accident that killed that worker. _Wheels started turning in Cosima's head, quickly pulling out her phone to search for "Cormier" and "Heismiser", not even noticing Rachel, the moderator, introducing the panel.

Once Cosima found who exactly had argued for what in the case, her eyes snapped back up from the phone, staring at Delphine with cold eyes.

It seemed to Cosima that they indeed were not always on the same side.

* * *

Alison was walking with the confidence of a superhero, with the stride of a goddess; she had her head held high, every hair pulled back into her high ponytail with not a single stray, pounding the ground with her heels in her very favorite power suit.

Also, she had on the broche inside of the lobster that she had stepped on people, threw people, and that Rachel had maimed people for her to claim the evening before.

The quarter-sized red ruby surrounded by diamonds, as far as Alison was concerned, did indeed hold the powers of poor Gary the Lobster, who had to be sacrificed for Alison's continued success. While wearing it, Alison felt very much that she had solidified her place at the top of the food chain for the Summit, a feeling that was confirmed by the appointment promptly made for her.

She approached the side-room reserved with the seal of the Prime Minister's office, nodding at Sarah and Felix, as they opened the door to let in Mrs. Sadler's newest penciled-in appointment.

"Mrs. Sadler, I believe you requested a meeting, and so, here I am." Alison tried to sound professional, and not over-the-top beaming that she was wearing the lobster prize pinned to her lapel.

"I did. Please, have a seat. Felix will be in with coffee shortly."

* * *

Cosima gave her presentation on combining wind, solar, and hydro-power generators into location specific mega-units, using coal generators to run the plants themselves, and then have the plants create power out of the alternative sourcing for hundreds of miles of towns by her calculations. She sat back with a triumphant look on her face. The audience kept up with her pace, easily endeared by the charismatic woman's ability to keep interest, explaining the most complicated concepts with patience, and without sounding condescending.

The warm, fuzzy, accomplished feeling fizzed away shortly after Delphine began her presentation, defending nations that choose to use nuclear power for electricity.

The happy feeling, in fact, had been sucked from Cosima's very being, and was slowly being replaced by an underlying rage that someone dared come to an environmental Summit for the purpose of pushing nuclear energy.

The more Delphine spoke, the more Cosima's rage bubbled, taking every ounce of her willpower to even let Delphine finished, after openly rolling her eyes at each and every PowerPoint slide.

"And now, if there are any questions."

Cosima's hand shot up, as the audience had barely had time to register the presentation as finished before the American scientist reminded the room of her presence.

Delphine had seen the woman's hand shoot up from the corner of her eye, cocking her head in confusion at the reaction from another panelist.

"This is not going to be good." Tony whispered over to Evan.

"No, I'd imagine not." The slender man answered, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"Ahh—Cosima, I believe we have to let the audience ask before we can-"

"Can you really sit here and tell us, Ms. Cormier, that you think this is a safe project? We're talking about _nuclear_ power, as in, Chernobyl, right?"

"Cosima, that is hardly a fair-"

"You know, _nuclear_ power. As in, the kind of energy that we use to put in bombs, precisely because of how dangerous it is?" Cosima challenged, unable to keep her teeth from grinding together, even for the sake of professionalism.

"Ah, yes. Chernobyl, that terrible, terrible disaster. One terrible disaster in the decades-long history of nuclear energy for electricity. Tell me, how many accidents does coal mining create a year in America alone? How many does that total historically? Perhaps we could remind the Chilean delegation just how safe the mining industry is?" Delphine was losing her patience with Cosima very quickly. Her attraction to the woman did not mean she was going to let something she felt passionately about come under attack in a public forum.

"We _should_ ask the Chilean delegation that. And they will tell you that they were mining copper during that crisis, not coal. Care to check your facts, Cormier?"

"And does the earth care what you're digging around for specifically? The fact of the matter is that mining is dangerous, especially coal mining, and we have an alternative that is indeed safe that can phase it out in the next twenty years."

Cosima was seething. She was breathing with full, labored, dragon breathes. Moreover, when she looked over at Delphine's responses, she could feel the anger being directed right back at her.

"Really? Okay, I'll make a bet with you. I will hold in my hand a hunk of coal, if you will touch physically with your hand a hunk of nuclear uranium. Does that sound safe to you?" Cosima all but growled out.

Rachel sat in her chair on the opposite end of the podium, knowing that her job as moderator was to stop this exchange before it got out of control. However, Rachel's natural instinct to enjoy a good fight was winning over the small voice in the back of her head that required her to be present in a professional capacity.

The two women continued to banter back and forth, with Tony and Evan watching wide-eyed.

"Still think they're in love, Croissant?" Tony said, watching Cosima toy with her pen in her hand, using it occasionally as a pointer, knowing that it was only a matter of time before the pen went flying out of her hand.

"I already told you I'm on your side with that. This is fantastic!" Evan said enthusiastically.

"…it is?" Tony said, actually turning his head, not bothering to whisper anymore.

"Yes! They'll never try anything with each other now. I'd say we are certainly safe to disappear for the day and not have to worry about them building a love nest while we're gone."

Tony's head snapped back just in time to see the pen fly across the room at Delphine's head, as Cosima reminded Delphine for the third time that she was not completely _pro_ coal energy in small amounts, but completely _against_ nuclear power. Rachel, not caring that she was the only person not to gasp, immediately started clapping.

"Well," Rachel said, standing and heading towards the podium, motioning for Delphine to sit, "I'd say this is a wonderful topic to discuss indeed. Perhaps some of the presenters will be willing to join us for round two next year? That is, unless Ms. Cormier ends up trapped in a mine somewhere, in which case we all know who to implicate in the crime."

Rachel's dark humor was met with a snicker from the audience, as well as a pen sent sailing in her own direction from the American's side of the room.

Once the room began clearing out, Delphine made a beeline to Cosima, her own anger now flowing freely.

"We need to talk." She said curtly, watching the dreadlocked woman pack up her things without even looking up.

"Yeah, I don't think so. I don't need to hear anymore of your propaganda. God, I'm so stupid. What is it they say? Always hire a lawyer, but never trust one?" Cosima was slamming things into her bag to show her frustrations.

"Regardless of how you feel about what I think, Cosima, you are completely out of line. In fact, you have been out of line for the last twenty minutes. If you don't agree with something, fine, but that doesn't mean you get to try to bully someone into agreeing with you during a panel." Delphine didn't bother keeping her voice down, full well knowing that the people walking by to exit were purposefully slowing down to listen to the continued argument.

"Gee, so I should just bite my tongue not to hurt your feelings of professionalism? Would it make you feel better if I just go sit in the corner while you run your completely anti-environmental presentations?"

"Actually, yes. You should go sit in a corner while you're going to act like a child." Cosima's jaw dropped, her face shooting up to meet with Delphine's. "Whether or not we agree on something does not give you the right to act like that. If you have a problem with something, then you talk to me like another professional, and we find an agreement, or agree to disagree."

"No, you-"

"No." Delphine cut Cosima off, leaving the shorter woman's eyebrows up in surprise. "That's enough out of you for today. You do _not_ get to decide that I'm a villain if I don't agree with you, and you do not get to do so while trying to imply to a room full of our colleagues that I must be a villain because I either don't care or because I'm too stupid to understand the facts that I'm presenting."

"But-"

"Don't. You crossed a line Cosima." Delphine grabbed her own bag. "Don't make the mistake of thinking that everyone without a Ph. D. isn't able to understand the same topics as you. Don't think that because I kissed you that I'm some giggling schoolgirl that you can just keep in your back pocket who nods whenever you speak. Not to worry; the room can be all yours tonight, Dr. Niehaus."

Cosima, who had been shrinking as Delphine scolded her, swallowed, watching the blonde walk away. She had been so angry that Delphine didn't automatically see eye-to-eye with her that she had forgotten that she was battling another actual person, a person with feelings—and whom she had feelings for.

The actual person that she woke up in the same bed with just three hours earlier.

She could only stand frozen in place, watching the tall blonde storm out, amazed that even the sound of her heels clicking on the floor could manage to sound angry.

"Do I really sound like that?" Cosima asked, turning to Rachel.

"Condescending? Oh, most definitely. We like it. That's why we invited to you to run the youth panel. You terrify the teenagers, but you know how to use Tumblr." Rachel said smirking, her own heels clicking away from the room.

Cosima sat back in her chair, putting her forehead in her hands, breathing out a deep breath, before breathing a deep breath in again, cooling herself off enough to attempt to think clearly.


	15. Hideaway

Chapter 15

Cosima sat at the bar, hoping that keeping her empty glasses in front of her would help her keep track of how many she'd had. She knew the worst nights were the ones where she started day drinking and lost track of how many she'd had.

Now, her plan was to hoard her empties, in a misguided, although ingenious attempt at curbing today's day drinking before it turned into night puking, and if the Norwegian conference on geo-thermic technology was any indication, morning singing of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's greatest hits from the roof of a building acapella with a pack of equally toasted Nordic environmentalists.

She thought back to that low point, where she learned after climbing down and making the news in several countries, that the lyrics indeed were not "Suck my dick", as she had truly, truly had them all believing.

At the top of their lungs.

On film.

CNN and BBC had a field day.

_Never again_, Cosima thought. _One, two, three, four, four and a half_, Cosima took a gulp, _four and three-quarters_, Cosima took another gulp, decided a fifth glass was within her ability to handle.

"Ooooookay, maybe a water? Wine Spritzer at least for the next round?" Alison asked, slipping into the bar stool next to her.

"I'm fine." Cosima said, trying to wave down the bartender who appeared to suddenly be _very _interested in drying his glasses, or at least the ones that were left and not pooled around Cosima.

"No, honey. You're not fine. Nothing about this—" She motioned to the growing collection of dirty wine glasses in front of the scientist, "says 'fine'. It says, 'it was this or become a crazy cat lady'. Cosima, what's going on?"

"You know that's a legit thing now? Apparently the cats have this parasite that gets into our brains-"

"You're changing the subject. Also, a sign that nothing is just 'fine' here." Alison said, signaling for the bartender to bring over two waters.

"Alright. I'm not fine." Cosima sat, running the tip of her finger around the top of the wine glass, watching the last remnants of what she had been guzzling down swirl as it stuck to the sides. "Alison, you've known me for a long time."

Alison nodded, trying to subtly inch Cosima's water closer to her, hoping to replace the wine glass in a quick snatch.

"Am I condescending?" Cosima asked, looking up.

Alison's first instinct had been to laugh off the question, and feed her plenty of 'no, sweeties', rubbing her friend's back to make her feel better. Something about seeing Cosima with a quivering lip, eyes wide forming two pools of earnest sadness, made her cut to the chase.

"Sometimes, I guess you can come across as a little…"

"Arrogant. Domineering. Pushy. Barkeep, three more glasses of red. And leave the bottle." Rachel slide in on Cosima's other side, trapping the woman between her two friends.

"Rachel, that's not-"

"No, she's right." Cosima said, taking a sip of the water before realizing it wasn't her next glass of wine and putting it down in disappointment. "I do that. I am that."

Cosima sat quiet for a moment, shaking her head to herself. Rachel and Alison took their glasses of wine from the bartender, watching the man in a bow tie tentatively start to place the third glass near Cosima's growing pile, waiting for a nod from Rachel before completely doing so.

"The question is, so what?" Rachel continued, once the bartender was out of ear shot. "You're intelligent. You know things that others couldn't understand a basic textbook about. You know what you want, and you don't let anyone keep it from you. I admire your tenacity, Cosima. It's not something to be ashamed of."

Cosima kept her head down, contemplating her next glass. Alison started rubbing her back, waiting for Cosima to tell them what this was really about.

"Cosima?" Alison said, after a few moments of no response.

"I'm not ashamed of being smart. I am…" Cosima trailed off, trying to find the words to connect with what she was feeling.

"It's okay, sweetie, you can talk to us. If you can't tell your friends, who can you tell?"

Cosima took in a deep breath. "I was an asshole. I was a really tremendous asshole to Delphine at the panel today. And I don't know what to do about it."

Alison let out a breath of sympathy, still rubbing Cosima's back, shooting Rachel a quick look to keep her mouth shut. The Baroness had opened her mouth to start to say something, quickly shutting it with Alison's silent threat.

"Cosima, listen to me. You aren't just arrogant. You are passionate. You care about the things you study so much, that you become protective of it. Like a lioness taking care of her little cubs."

"Or just the lion part." Rachel slipped out, getting a death glare from Alison.

"Ignore her. Go find Delphine. You have to talk it out. Apologize."

"Can I even apologize without sounding condescending?" Cosima asked, feeling more and more disgusted with herself.

Rachel rolled her eyes for a moment, taking a swig of her wine.

"Yes." She answered, getting a stunned look from Alison, still rubbing the American's back. "Just go. Be yourself. Ali's right about your—verbal indiscretions coming from passion. If you're going to be a lioness, then go _pounce her like a lion_. And yes, maybe that apology idea from Alison if you're so inclined."

Cosima and Alison just stared back at Rachel's attempt at a motivational speech, blinking almost in unison, before Rachel reached behind the bar to grab the bottle of wine, shoving it in Cosima's hands.

"Go find her." Rachel said, nodding as the woman spun out of her chair, dreadlocks whipping around her as she lept out of the room, armed with a Cabernet Sauvignon, determined to make this right.

* * *

Delphine was almost relieved to climb into a good tree with her hammock kit, having shed her professional clothes for her much more comfortable street clothes. She had the set-up for tree sleeping down to a science; having the entire set-up finished within a matter of minutes before disguising her location with branches and climbing in.

She let out a long exhale, breathing out the tremendous pressures of the day, finally appreciating some alone time.

What she hadn't let anyone know was that she was a ball of anxiety from the moment she woke up, nervous on so many fronts that she was quickly becoming overloaded.

She had insisted that the panel be capped at twenty audience members, knowing her speaking anxiety would be out of control at any more than that. She figured twenty people was the most she had ever dealt with in a court room, so that should be safe.

However, she had woken up that morning, yet again in bed with Cosima, and then it dawned on her.

_I told her last night that I was an R607. _

Delphine immediately spun out of control. Could she trust the woman with that kind of information? Sure, at the time she felt she could, but she also had her warm fuzzy emotions clouding her judgment at the time.

She could barely say two words to Cosima while getting ready, trying not to let her nerves show, but the truth was that her mind kept jumping to the kiss, then to telling Cosima more than she knew she was allowed to, then to the fact that she had to make a presentation for an entire room of people.

By the time she had started the presentation, she could feel Cosima's angry eyes drilling holes into her head from the side. It actually helped her give the presentation, as she had something to focus on other than the crowd.

She had started giving the presentation almost exclusively to Cosima. She managed to go over every slide, every statistic, every detail without her usual occasional stuttering from nerves, because Cosima looked _so angry_, that she began to just focus on her, even though she knew it was only winding her up further.

She had been so proud of herself that she finished the presentation without passing out, stuttering, needing to stop for water or fan herself, and in general without the overwhelming dizziness that usually accompanied a public speech.

And she had no time to celebrate her small, yet monumental victory, before Cosima had began attacking her with the most malicious tone.

Before that, Delphine would have thanked her. She would have thanked her for being on the panel even though they disagreed so much on the topic, and that she had someone there to focus on, even though it was making Cosima angry. That was before Cosima opened the floodgates, wanting to argue in front of the whole room of people.

Delphine contemplated the situation, staring up at the night sky. She had specifically built her little nest for the night to have a window up to the stars, wrapping herself with a blanket, playing with the little frayed edges as she directed her thoughts upward.

Cosima knew that she had a public speaking issue. And she still pushed her. It was cruel.

However, Delphine realized, no matter how things played out with Cosima, who at this moment she had no further desire to pursue, she realized that while she was arguing with Cosima in front of the room full of people that she had been so offended, so angry, so _enraged_ at the woman's arrogance, that she forgot she was public speaking.

Delphine smiled softly to herself. Cosima may have been an asshole, but it gave her a forum to put on the best public defense for her work she had ever been able to muster up.

* * *

Tony had been pleasantly surprised at his afternoon away with Evan. All of his nightmare, preconceived notions about the French man melted away, as Tony had shown up at his hotel room door, acting as the perfect gentleman, with two tickets in his hand.

_Tickets? Opera? Classical music? _Tony had taken his ticket out of Evan's hand, reading the event, before grinning ear to ear.

"You're taking me to a rugby game?" Tony said excitedly.

"I know it's probably not as exciting for you as American football, but I used to play. I still play actually, but just for fun in an adult league back in France."

Tony shook his head, still smiling. Maybe there was hope with Evan after all.

The game was full of excitement, and by excitement specifically Evan's excitement. Tony had never seen the man light up with such expressiveness, cheering his team on, as Evan tried to explain the rules to him as best he could.

The American man watched the players run, tackle, and in general end up covered in mud and grass stains, trying to picture Evan, the man who he could only think to describe as "dainty", pummeling a pack of men in a scrum. Something told Tony he would probably be both fierce and graceful at the same time. He didn't even mind when their arms brushed against each other, crammed into small stadium seats.

By the second half of the game, Tony was starting to like when their arms brushed together.

By the end of the match, Tony was wondering what else he had misjudged about Evan.

He decided quickly to ditch the idea of taking Evan to a bar after the game, as he originally had planned to do with their evening, instead insisting that they make a quick stop into a few stores on the walk back to the hotel, and stopping at his room, never allowing Evan to see what he was buying.

If Evan was going to give Tony a peer into his world, the least he could do was be as honest as Evan was, and take him out the way he really would want to.

It was this momentum of honest that led Tony to take them outside of the hotel, with a rather large duffel bag concealing items that Evan had no knowledge of.

"Tony," Evan said, laughing as they walked along, as he had been the whole evening, humoring Tony as the gruff man was clearly putting something together, "are you going to tell me at some point what we're doing?"

"Not yet. We have to find a good—oooh! This one!" Tony said, selecting a rather large tree, all but dragging Evan by the arm to it, immediately setting down the bag underneath.

Delphine froze, hearing the commotion beneath her, hoping that whoever it was wouldn't look up in case she hadn't hidden her hideaway for the evening well enough.

She had been lost in thought, still contemplating the complication that was Cosima being in her life at the moment, and everything that had transpired between the two, her mind racing between past lovers' trists and everything that had happened in the last forty-eight hours of her life. Her thoughts snapped back to the present moment when she heard two hushed voices directly below her.

"Okay, now." Tony said, opening the duffel bag, first pulling out a large blanket and spreading it around at the base of the massive tree. "We're having a bricnic."

"Errrmm…" Tony could almost see the wheels spinning in Evan's head, waiting for the slender man to continue, "Tony, I have only been speaking English for a few years, but I'm fairly sure it's a 'picnic', unless there are regional differences in dialect-"

"No, you are correct. And so am I. We're having a bro-picnic. A bricnic. We're doing this my style." Evan pulled out of the duffel bag a traditional picnic basket, and the hotel room's ice buck with four beers already packed inside, then pulling out the rest of the case of Labatt's.

Evan laughed fully and genuinely, clearly pleased at the direction the evening was going in. "I see. A bro-picnic. And what does that entail?"

"Glad you asked." Tony opened up the basket, pulling out a bunch of ingredients from the basket. "Dinner's on me tonight, buddy." Tony shoved Evan a wink, pulling out the two largest submarine sandwiches Evan had ever been presented with. He handed one to Evan, then pulled out of the basket a bunch of other food items. "No, we're doing this American style." Tony opened a bag of Doritos, and began cramming the chips onto the sub.

"Evan, it's already huge. I don't think I can fit this in my mouth."

"You can. Trust me. It's better with the crunch." Tony scooted so that he was right next to Evan, handing him a bottle of beer, taking the sandwich out of his hands to cram on some chips. "It's like you need the perfect balance. Oh, and yeah…" Tony reached over, pulling the tiniest, saddest bouquet of flowers Evan had ever seen out of the basket.

Evan smiled, looking at Tony, causing the man to blush, and stammer, "You know, cause it's still a picnic and stuff, but kinda bro style, but you should still have some…okay I don't know what I'm saying." Tony said, laughing nervously.

At this point in the exchange, Delphine was aware of exactly who was below her, having to bite the edge of her blanket not to laugh at the awkwardness of the two men beneath her. She suddenly felt guilty, like she was privy to an exchange that she had no business listening in on, but she had no intention of giving up her spot. Not tonight, anyway.

Evan took an inhale of the flowers, which while crushed from the bag, clearly at least a few days old, most likely the last the grocer had in stock, they still smelled like a large, fresh bouquet.

"Amazing." He said, taking a swig of his beer before inhaling the scent again. "I had no idea you were so…" It was now Evan's turn to blush, unconsciously moving a hand up to Tony's cheek. What could he say? That underneath his caveman exterior, there was an underlying sweetness that had always been there, but now that he was offering up to Evan freely? That he had also enjoyed their arms brushing against each other throughout the entire afternoon, and had been intentionally hogging the armrest to allow it to continue?

That he had been attracted to Tony since they first met, but he was too afraid to explore the idea that he might genuinely be gay?

Tony froze, feeling Evan's touch across his cheek; the warm palm preventing his ability to create a verbal response.

Delphine heard the banter from below stop, wondering what was going on. She _really, really_ wanted to take a peek, now fully accepting that she was spying on the two for as long as they were under her tree. She contemplated trying to move enough just for a quick look, debating in her head if her stealth movement skills were good enough to do so, knowing she was surrounded by branches.

What she couldn't see was Evan staring into Tony's eyes, trying to decide how far to take things with the man, letting his hand move, his fingertips running through the American's rough facial hair, giving it a little tug, smiling.

"Hey! You two!" The moment was broken by Cosima, stumbling across the large grassy area to the tree, carrying a bottle of wine in her hands.

Delphine immediately recognized the voice, secretly berating the woman in her head for interrupting what she knew was an intimate moment.

"Have either of you seen Delphine?" She said, walking right up to the bricnic. Clearly, it wasn't even registering in her mind that she was indeed interrupting a date.

Evan immediately snapped his hand away from Tony's cheek, looking sheepishly at Cosima, who looked—well, like a sloppy, sloppy mess, who had clearly spend the afternoon crying and drinking.

"Sorry, Cos. We've kind of been out all day." Tony said, hoping that would be enough to make the woman go away.

"Right. Well, I need help. I need to find her." Cosima answered, still not noticing that what she was walking in on, although technically in public, was a private moment.

"Umm, Cosima, I hope you do not find this rude, but can this wait?" Evan asked, red faced, hoping his evening with Tony was not ruined.

"No. Sorry guys, I know you're off today or whatever, but I really need to figure out where she is."

"It's okay." They all heard the voice from above them, followed by some crunching and snapping of branches, before a blonde head peaked out from a branch. "I am up here."

Tony and Evan shared a look between them that was a mix of horror and surprise.

"Good. I'm coming up." Was Cosima's response, trampling through the picnic with the grace of a herd of elephants.

* * *

**Author's Note: **So, so sorry to cut this off here! I'm under time constraints at the moment, and didn't want to have to wait until the next time I'm not slammed schedule-wise and can finish this section. As such, this puppy got a QUICK proofread (hint: probably littered with mistakes), but I didn't want to go on forever after leaving the last chapter like a cold-turkey asshole. Please accept my olive-branch of a chapter for the moment—consider it the plight of reading a WIP! Love you all.


	16. In a Tree

_**Author's Note: **__So I'll just start with I AM SO, SO SORRY. I am not trying to abandon this story, but my summer schedule (about 10x more busy than my winter schedule) started earlier this year than anticipated, so I literally had no time for fun. Seriously, none. So I'm hurrying to get this up, but just know that even though updates might be longer in between, I'm not ditching. Also, I have some Shaysima stuff floating around in my head—but yeah, it's all going to depend on what I have time for. Again, so sorry!_

Chapter 16

"Cosima, no! I can come—oh. You can climb a tree." Delphine watched as the smaller woman jumped grabbed the lowest branch on the massive, old tree, easily climbing up in her flats, bottle of wine clearly not full or it would have been spilling the whole way up.

Evan and Tony watched as Cosima went from having sloppy walking skills to expert climbing instincts, still sitting froze in their seats.

"Fuck it. I say we stay and listen." Tony said, leaning back, taking a swig from his beer.

"We can't do that. It would be like-"

"Exactly what Delphine was just doing to us." Tony said in a quiet voice, going back to his sandwich. "I took you to dinner and a show. You're welcome." Tony winked, handing Evan his beer. "Besides, they can't stay up there forever."

"No, I think we can do better than spending our time literally under our boss' noses. C'mon." Evan stood up, offering his hand to Tony. "We're taking the picnic to my room."

"Ow—Delphine, seriously? Are you hiding up here?" Cosima said, her head poking up through Delphine's carefully constructed nest that had been hiding her massive hammock.

"I don't think of it as hiding. It's more like making sure that I can have personal time, in a private space, where I can think, and I don't have to—okay, it's hiding." Delphine said, sitting up to make room for Cosima to climb into the hammock with her, her sudden weight testing Delphine's skilled tree-hiding construction skills.

Delphine smiled to herself, admitting in her own head that she was somewhat hiding under the guise of "personal time". Cosima sat cross-legged on the stretched-out canvas, looking around. Delphine had been using a side-branch as a little shelf, otherwise perfectly tucked away. She would've been able to stay up there all night undetected if Cosima hadn't gotten lucky with where Tony chose to have a picnic that evening.

"So…do you normally hang out…in trees?" Cosima asked, looking around, impressed by how insulated the hiding spot was.

"Actually, yes. I've always sort of liked squirreling away when I need to think. Or when I've had a day with a lot of emotions." Delphine started to relax a bit, leaning back farther away from Cosima as she spoke.

Cosima sat nodding along with everything Delphine said, playing with the wine bottle in her hands. She was biting her lip, like she was almost holding her breath to keep something inside.

"Cosima, how much have you had to drink?"

"I'm sorry!" Cosima blurted out, exhaling the words like she had been holding it in for weeks. Delphine stared back at her, waiting for whatever else Cosima had climbed up to say. "I'm really, really sorry."

The small woman with the dreadlocks sat with her back rounded, looking down at the wine bottle, chipping away at the label with her thumb. She let out an exhale.

"I just sort of went on auto-pilot, you know?" Cosima let out another breath, still not looking at Delphine directly. "It's like, I really turn off most of my brain sometimes and just focus in on one thing. I really—I should have thought about the fact that it was you, not just me arguing with some faceless news article or with an idea that doesn't have feelings. I really, really need to stop and think sometimes before my mouth goes off."

Delphine nodded along, even though Cosima wasn't looking up to see.

"I do that a lot, actually. I have this habit of just letting my feelings fly off the handles."

"Even with women you are…" Delphine trailed off. Women she is dating? Casually seeing? Used to sleep with and now kissed?

"Especially with women." Cosima laughed. "Actually, mostly with women. This is sort of my cycle. I blow up and scare them off." Cosima looked up at Delphine, looking the saddest the blonde had ever seen her. Her hair was askew from the climb up the tree, and she looked so sad and vulnerable, like a cat dripping after a surprise bath.

"I think subconsciously, I sort of want to scare them off. But that's not how I want to do things here."

Delphine nodded. She could understand that; someone being temporarily ruled by her emotions before rational thought could kick in.

"I've been thinking about it." Delphine finally said, having let Cosima stew in her sorry-ness for a few moments. "I guess there always is a silver lining." Delphine waiting until Cosima was looking at her before continuing.

"I was so angry with you. _So_ angry, Cosima. Not professionally, but personally." Cosima nodded, frowning as she listened to the words coming from the blonde, slumping her shoulders.

"But did you notice, Cosima," Delphine took the saddened woman's chin in her hand, lifting the eyes to meet her own, "how wonderful the rest of my presentation went?"

"Even with me steaming obnoxiously in the background?" Cosima asked, still ashamed of herself.

"Especially with you 'steaming' as you so put it. Did anything seem interesting about that presentation? Besides the parts you disagreed with." Delphine said, letting a soft smile break through. Even though she was still hurt by Cosima's behavior, she was proud of herself more than she was angry.

It took a moment for the wheels in Cosima's head, noticeably slowing their gears from the alcohol, to catch up with what Delphine was trying to say.

"Oh my God! Delphine!" Cosima broke out into a smile, finally getting it. "You gave a big presentation. A _big_ one! And no passing out—or even stuttering, for that matter. From a public speaking perspective, you were great!"

Cosima went to put her hand on Delphine's leg, across from her in the hammock, before stopping herself. She was more than aware that Delphine's triumph did not mean her behavior was excused.

Delphine caught the hesitation. She had a split second to make a decision; she knew she either had to work with the woman she had feelings for, or hop out of the tree now before she was in any deeper.

She chose to catch Cosima's hand before it landed back at the scientist's own lap, lacing the fingers with her own. Cosima let out an exhale, looking at Delphine for her to continue.

"When I found out I was rooming with you here, I was also angry. I was _so, so_ angry. And I think that I'm starting to realize that things can only make us that angry when we care _that_ much, you know?" Delphine paused, looking up from their joint hands at Cosima, who gave a genuine nod of understanding.

"I know what you mean. I was angry too—obs, since I was hell bent on taking it out on you from day one. But, yeah, it's from caring and being hurt. It's like, I think half of the delegation from Norway is a bunch of dicks, but I just steer clear of them. They don't make me blindingly angry."

"Exactly. So, I'm not saying that you talking to me like that is alright, because it is not. But I understand. I hit your sore spot, and our—personal history may have made it worse."

Cosima was swimming with emotions. She was truly trying to listen to everything Delphine had to say, but also was almost purring from Delphine holding her hand. She had thought, for sure, a mere twenty minutes earlier that she had blown it with the gorgeous, intelligent attorney. Now, it seemed as though there was a light at the end of the tunnel that she had dug herself into.

"Well," Cosima said, beginning to squeeze Delphine's had back, "they say that the third time's a charm, right? So let's do another do-over." Cosima said, smiling up in a way that showed she had no idea how much her mascara was smudged.

"Third time?" Delphine asked.

"Yes. Round one was The Academy, which we blew, that much is clear. Round two was our start off here, not great, but at least progress. So Round three starts now, and we're starting fresh."

Cosima withdrew her hand from Delphine's, instead turning it to offer a handshake.

"Hi. I'm Cosima Niehaus. I am an eccentric, short-tempered mess." Delphine smiled, accepting Cosima's handshake.

"Delphine Cormier. I jump to conclusions, as quickly and rudely as possible. Enchantee."

"I should also mention that I'm completely arrogant, to the point where you could be talking and I wouldn't even hear a word you were saying over the sound of my own voice." Cosima continued, beaming at Delphine.

"Ahhh, I understand. With my ability to act without hearing the other person out, I doubt I will notice before I stomp all over you, like a bug beneath my boot."

The two were now giggling with themselves, reflecting on their own idiosyncratic tendencies, before Cosima scooted in closer, leaving the bottle of wine propped in a branch.

"I should also be up front with you, since we're making such pleasant introductions." She scooted up right next to the taller woman, moving in so she could speak directly into her ear. "I am irrational. So much so that I seem to have fallen for a woman who may or may not have the same feelings for me." Cosima pulled her head back to watch Delphine's reaction, suddenly feeling less guilty and more self-conscious at her boldness.

"Oh, that. Well, don't tell anyone, but the secret is that she is too stubborn to be the first one to say it, but she has fallen for you as well."

Delphine started to lean back in the hammock, surrounding them with leaves and a straight shot up to the stars above, waiting for Cosima to adjust to half-lying on top of the lean, tall woman. She propped herself up on one arm, using the other to lightly draw with her fingertips along Delphine's collarbone.

"Good. Because if you didn't feel this-" Cosima trailed off, shaking her head, before leaning in for a kiss. More caring than sexual, she kissed Delphine with the words she didn't have to say out loud. She buried her hand in Delphine's hair, pressing their mouths together again and again, accepting the chance extended to her.


	17. Stranger Things Have Happened

_Author's note: Okay, honestly…I clearly can't promise regular updates. But I can promise this one here, and another one within the next month. Nips-YW_

* * *

Cosima was so very, very nervous, as her, Delphine, their assistants, Alison, and Rachel attempted to make it through customs after landing in Heathrow.

Cosima thought the whole situation was a bad, bad idea.

On the last day of the conference, Siobhan Sadler had pulled the group into a conference room at the hotel, fully aware that Delphine had disclosed that she was part of R607. Delphine had also been adamant that she hadn't actually told Siobhan anything.

Somehow, though, Siobhan knew _everything_. She knew that Alison and Rachel were best friends, making it clear that not only was everyone coming to England, but that they were to bring Gary the Lobster through somehow.

She knew that Delphine and Cosima were back together, making it known that she even knew they had a history, although she did not disclose to what extent. Siobhan made it clear that they were coming to England as well, Delphine because of her position on the project and Cosima because she knew about it.

* * *

On the plane, Delphine was starting to scare Cosima. In all fairness, the scientist had to admit that she didn't know the blonde attorney very well. They hadn't been sleeping together all that long previously, and had only recently been reunited. However, she did know what it looked like when someone was getting a headache and trying to pretend that they weren't.

Cosima didn't want to push, so every time Delphine she shooed away an overly polite flight attendant, refusing food or beverage, she simply put her hand on Delphine's knee, giving it a little squeeze. It seemed to have a momentary calming effect, with Delphine only subtly rubbing her temples.

After five hours on the, knowing they still weren't close to landing, Cosima couldn't help herself. She pulled a little bottle of pain reliever out of her carry on, offering it up.

Delphine only shook her head, trying to put on a forced smile.

"It's okay." She said, grabbing Cosima's hand, raising it to her lips to give it a kiss. "Those never help me. It will pass on its own."

Cosima could only nod, helpless, but it must have passed by the time they landed. That's when Delphine had stopped occasionally wrinkling her nose and scrunching up her forehead, and was actually squeezing Cosima's hand bank.

It worried Cosima further that not only had they all been ordered on the first flight out to London, but that Siobhan, Felix, and Sarah were on a different flight. It also worried her that the ring that was around the prize lobster was hidden in Alison's bag along with the remains of the lobster himself, and that Siobhan had made it clear that they were all to get into the country without a hitch.

Her exact words were along the lines of, "You are to report to my offices, with the ring and the lobster as soon as you get off of the plane. If it, or any of you are missing, you can expect to all go missing. Indefinitely."

Cosima didn't know why the woman was so intimidating, but she didn't really want to find out if she had the ability to back up her threats. Her initial belief that the prize lobster and anything associated with it as silly had clearly been blown away.

Although, now that she thought about how hard every country had fought over this lobster every year…

_What is in that damn lobster that's so important?_

Now that Delphine was having strange headaches, Cosima's alert level was heightened to a level that told her there was no way they were just "walking off the plane" that Siobhan had very clearly purposefully strayed away from.

* * *

Alison was shaking. She was absolutely unable to hand her passport over to the customs agent without her entire arm shaking, only raising their suspicions further.

They had only been on English soil for a total of five minutes before the group was flagged as "high risk" and brought to a private area, presumably to have all of their belongings ripped apart.

While the customs agent was explaining that he thought it was strange that they had all booked last minute tickets, had no return tickets, and were acting very nervous, all Alison could play in her head over and over again were the threats from Siobhan.

_I can't go missing. I have a family. I help run a country! I have dry cleaning to pick up! No, no, no, no._

While Alison was clearly having a freak-out, Rachel was more than calm. She could attribute that to what had to have been upwards of ten drinks she'd consumed, between her pre-flight beverage and everything she had convinced the flight attendant that it was "in her best interest" to let her have after slipping the attendant twenty pounds.

Cosima and Delphine were having their own bags searched, their luggage up on a metal counter as soon as Tony and Evan had been given the all clear and proceed to the other side of the roped-off area. They could hear everything occurring with Rachel and Alison at the next table over.

Cosima, full well knowing there was a paper towel wrapped lobster shell with a ring around its neck that absolutely _must_ get through in Alison's bag meant she currently wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry, but only that either reaction would sign her up for a full private pat-down.

The customs agent was starting with Alison's handbag.

"Alright miss, I see we have pain reliever, cold medicine, sleep aids-"

"Those are all over-the-counter, thank you very much—ouch" Alison felt Rachel jab her in the ribs as a warning, "I mean, take them. Not important. I suppose I was a little flu-y before I got on the flight but…hey, what are you doing?"

The customs agent had started wiping down the bag with what looked like a very tiny, oval baby-wipe.

"Just doing a swab, miss. It'll just take a moment." The agent stuck the swab into a machine, pressing a button and waiting.

"Honestly, don't these people know who I am? Who you are? Aren't there any connections you can call?" Rachel rolled her eyes.

"No, that won't look suspicious at all. It's completely normal to be pulled over by customs and ask if it's okay to use your phone-a-friend."

Cosima tried to peek over her shoulder to see what was going on over at their table, unable to see what the machine was that the agent was using, until she heard it beeping—urgently, with red lights flashing.

"Right then. Miss, would you happen to know of any reason why your bag would test positive for Cocaine?" The agent began dumping Alison's pharmacy bag out, looking for any secret compartments inside the lining.

"Coc-what? That's absurd. I would never."

"Right, like I've never heard that one before. Why don't you try again while I put this through the x-ray."

"You know what," Rachel said, deciding it was time to intervene, "That was me. Not doing coke, of course, but…see we were on holiday, alright? We had a layover a few months ago in Thailand, and I thought 'when in Rome', so-"

Rachel saw the agent reach for his handcuffs.

"No! Not that we-I, not that I did any. But I just thought it's such a lovely substance."

"It really is gorgeous up close. Like dust made by fairies." Alison added.

"So I thought, why not just rub it down on the outside of our bags? Give it a nice tone. I heard it does wonders for the skin. Why wouldn't it also do wonders for leather? Get it?" Rachel gave her best, largest, fake smile, hearing Cosima and Delphine simultaneously palm slap their foreheads.

"So you see, there will be no cocaine inside of the bags. Just a little rubdown."

"A sprinkle, really." Alison added.

"Ma'am, we're going to need you both to step over to the private room area. We'll need to do a pat down while I finish going through these bags.

Delphine looked at Cosim, hoping to convey 'we really need to get Rachel's suitcase through' without telling the agent 'we really would like to join our friends being detained'.

What to do. What to do.

Delphine new at this point that Cosima would follow her lead. Would Evan know enough to follow?

"Cosima, look!" Delphine said, suddenly very loudly. "It is my asshole ex-boyfriend!" Delphine said theatrically, motioning to Tony and Evan on the other side of the ropes.

"He was the biggest asshole. The Largest! Super, gigantic asshole!" She shouted, seeing Evan staring back, not knowing what was going on. Delphine made it a point to waive her arms around and be as distracting as possible.

Cosima froze, not having expected that outburst either, which Delphine didn't even seem to notice.

"Yoo-hoo! Evan! It's much, much better with you, you-" Delphine ran out of distraction material too quickly, but she knew she had to keep up the spectacle and hope that Alison would take the out.

Delphine took off each shoe, throwing them in Evan's general direction, seeing agents starting to close in from each direction.

_Yes, come this way. Over here._

"You, you…" Delphine gave up trying to yell, and grabbed Cosima, kissing her fiercely, pushing her back onto the metal table, on top of their luggage.

"Miss, you can't do that. Oh, for heavens sakes."

Delphine pushed Cosima back, climbing on top of her, knowing full well the other agents in the area were distracted, some enough so to take cell phone photos of the event.

_Alison, Rachel, please be smart enough. Please._

* * *

That evening, while Delphine, Cosima, Alison, and Rachel were sitting in the detention cell at immigration, after being cuffed, frisked, every item confiscated, and surely a few videos uploaded to the internet, Delphine wondered exactly how everything spiraled so out of control, and so quickly.


	18. And Then There Were Two

_Author's Note: I can't believe people are still reading this crack lol. Y'all are awesome. Thanks for reading and the encouragement._

* * *

"How long?" Alison asked yet again, clearly twitching as they all sat locked in a back office in Airport Security.

Cosima had noticed that Alison was asking literally every five minutes, to the second. She would keep her eyes glued to her watch, and then ask in five minutes cycles, a behavior that told the scientist that Alison was slowly losing her grip on reality and using the clock-watching tactic as an attempt at staying grounded.

"It's been forty-minutes, Alison. Do you really have to ask?" Keep asking.

_I do have to keep asking. Once we hit three hours I need to start rationing our supplies. I see half of a bottle of water, Rachel always has granola bars in her purse, and more likely than not Cosima has something hidden in her bra._

_Nevermind—that's probably pot. _

…_which is medicinal. Still could come in handy._

Cosima and Delphine exchanged looks, noticing that Alison chose not to answer that last question out loud, instead staring off into space.

"What is going through that one's head?" Delphine leaned over and whispered to Cosima.

* * *

Rachel scanned the room again, having been trapped with her best friend and two sort-of-friends for an hour and a half, actively telling herself that she was not allowed to plan for their eventually demise or escape for at least a full day.

Anything earlier would just be tacky, even for a criminal, and Rachel refused to ever have a police headshot on file without her impeccable make-up intact.

Of course, she had been cheating on her timeline. She had already identified an air vent, that did not look like it would fit an adult body, but maybe she could use her purse to knock the hole into something larger.

No, now was not the time to panic. Even if the vent is too small, there is no reason to plan for the worst. There is nothing to indict this wasn't a routine detention, and that they weren't going to be let out.

_However, if we did have to start planning…_

* * *

Mrs. Sadler watched on from the security camera with the audio feed on loud.

"Are we seriously going to just watch them all day?" Felix asked, clearly already bored with this particular strategy.

"Yes. All week, if that's what it takes." Siobhan was convinced if they were left in a room long enough, eventually on of them would bring it up.

She had figured that at least one of them was an R607 recruit. It was just a matter of figuring out which one.

Currently, given Alison's predisposition for asking a question and then staring off into space as though hearing voices in her head answer was pointing the fingers directly to that perfect, hair-ironed and professionally colored suburban head.

"What about our flight guest?" Felix asked, holding up the confiscated lobster remains.

"Toss it. It doesn't have any actual value."

"You just needed to ensure they would act incredibly stupid." Felix said slowly, putting the pieces together in his own mind.

* * *

Alison started pacing the room, counting the steps, keeping an accurate catalogue in her head. Twelve paces front to back, fifteen paces to walk in a diagonal. She was currently walking the entire perimeter, not trusting her own count, each time pausing and starting over to count again.

"We have to do something. It's been two hours and she's only getting worse." Delphine whispered to Cosima. The two had made themselves comfortable in a corner, using their jackets as cushions, holding hands as they watched the show that was Alison and Rachel in—well, in any situation really, but this was proving to be more interesting than most.

"What can we do? I'm more than certain they're throwing us the hell out of this country, so they're probably just figuring out what flights to book us on. It could take hours. We could even be here overnight."

"If we are here for that long, Alison will lose it." Dephine paused and thought for a moment. "Maybe Tony and Evan are getting us lawyers."

"Tony isn't." She said, stopping herself from saying more.

"…no?" Delphine asked, waiting for an explanation. Cosima puffed out a sigh.

"We have an 'every woman for herself' policy at my office. He is aware that if there are ever hints of trouble when we're travelling internationally the only goal is to get back alive, and never give the other one up. He had better be heading back as we speak and arranging things from the other side of the Atlantic."

_Unless he's too love sick and is running away to France to be with Evan. No—he wouldn't._

_He so would. _

"So, is that what you're going to do once we're out of here?" Delphine asked cautiously.

"Yeah. I mean, that's what I'm supposed to do, right? Siobhan's going to be pissed that we couldn't get into the country, and I still don't completely get what her deal is, so I should probably go home and get some extra security guards or something."

"Probably. I mean, that makes sense." Delphine sounded deflated, and Cosima wasn't sure why.

_Why does she sound upset? It's not like we would be living together. We just—reconnected. I can't just dump my life and move on a whim. _

Cosima stared at Delphine, who was refusing to make eye contact back. She squeezed Delphine's hand.

"Hey. What else can we do?"

"Right. I know, I was just hoping…I don't know what I'm hoping for."

"We'll figure something out. Okay?" It was a phrase that Cosima had kept saying, and yet Delphine noticed that neither of them had yet to actually figure anything out.

* * *

_Hour five. Day one. _

Rachel had succumbed to the intense need she had to self-document the entire captivity in her head, identifying herself as potential sole survivor.

_In the event that we have been forgotten, and our rations of water and granola that Alison has so kindly allocated into sixteen mini-meals allowing for four each, we will have to choose who will not walk out of here with us. _

_As I cannot reasonably eat my best friend without being charged with criminal insanity, in the event of days on end of abandonment, we will have to choose between sacrificing Delphine or Cosima. _

_There would be advantages to using Cosima as a food source. I believe that even with her short stature, there will be more meat available. Further, as a scientist, an environmental scientist at that, I would easily find a suitable replacement, and the media would be less likely to dig up any information if her missing person status were to even make the news at all. _

_However, there is the issue of Tony, who would absolutely hunt us down and murder us in cold-blooded revenge. Which does lead me to consider Delphine as a potential food source, in addition to the knowledge that she has been drinking wine since she was ten, leading me to believe that she is internally marinated and flavored, making her a less-survival-oriented option and more the gourmet market choice. _

_Cosima or Delphine. Scientist or Attorney. _

_Then there is the matter of getting Alison on board with this plan. _

She glanced over at Alison, who was slowly losing her mind. She was literally attempting to recite every word she knew in the English language, so that she didn't 'forgot any of them' for when they were finally let free.

_If need be, of course. Only if it's a true emergency. If we're completely out of food. _

Rachel eyed the stacks of granola that had been put in neat little packages by Alison, also in her own little way attempting to ensure their survival.

_No. Four mini-meals simply won't do. And there is no reason, with two potential food sources sitting in our close proximity. _

Alison squealed when she noticed Rachel dive face-first directly into the meal ratios, screaming her displeasure.

"No! Rachel, NO! These are our only chance. Stop it! You stop it right now!" Cosima and Delphine only watched, as Alison attempted to separate Rachel from what Alison was considering their last meal.

* * *

"Those two." Siobhan said, pointing at Alison and Rachel completely having lost their minds.

"You think it's them? The bloody walking Abbott and Costello routine?" Sarah said, letting her disagreement shine through.

"No, I think it's clearly _not_ them. Look at those two." Siobhan pointed to the screen, as Rachel was attempting to force Alison to eat her granola ratios all at once as well. She turned up the audio.

"Stop it, Rachel! I don't even like raisins. This is for survival!"

"Oh, you don't like raisins, do you? How about PEOPLE, Alison? Hmm? Because that's what's next. It starts with eating the little crumbs here and there that you can find until the hunger drives you to the last resort!"

"See this?" Siobhan points to the screen, then looking up at Felix and Sarah. "These are not highly trained specialists who learned to maneuver through any threat from an international spy academy. These people are the reason public lavatories require so many signs reminding us all what not to flush and that we should also probably wash our hands."

"I'll go have them let out." Felix said with a sharp roll of his eyes, leaving to go talk to the border security guards who were on Siobhan's payroll.

He moved quite quickly, unsure if Rachel were actually capable of spiraling into a desperate, panic-induced afternoon of cannibalism.

* * *

The doors opened quickly, showing the two large guards who had tossed them all into the holding room six hours earlier.

All of them immediately stood up, Alison releasing her chokehold on Rachel as Rachel dropped her fistful of granola to the ground.

"You two are free to go." He motioned to Rachel and Alison, who looked slowly at each other, clearly contemplating the possibility of this being a trap.

"Those two? What about us?" Delphine said, sound exasperated.

"We're just getting to your background checks now. Only these two are clear." He motioned again to Alison and Rachel, who slowly exited the room on high alert, just in case.

Cosima and Delphine watched with jaws dropped as the door shut again, leaving them behind.

And then there were two.


	19. The Truth Doesn't Set You Free

Honestly y'all, WHY. WHY IS THIS STORY STILL GOING. I have no idea, but I drank a bunch this afternoon while doing things around the house and now I'm too tipsy to go out, so you get a chapter!

You're welcome? I'm sorry? I'm not sure...

* * *

"Come on. Come on." Siobhan Sadler said over and over again while staring at the CCTV monitor.

In six hours, minus one highly guarded restroom break for the captives, Siobhan had listened to a very long, drawn out fight about where the future of the two captive women were headed, a violent make-up make out session afterwards, a casual discussion about if Alison and Rachel were secretly hooking up (at least this one provided Mrs. S. some needed comedic relief), cuddling, another fight about Cosima using affection to defer Delphine from bringing up the "what is our future" discussion again, an argument about proper uses for recycled/repurposed municipal waste, and an emphatic retelling of a red pepper hummus recipe complete with little step-by-step hummus recipe making hand motions.

And then Delphine begins countering with _every_ recipe that she does now for a food processor. In detail.

Siobhan was only jolted awake when Felix brought in a cup of tea.

"Still watching them then? There's a _Fawlty Towers_ re-run hour starting in five minutes. You might as well give up the remote now." Mrs. S. took a long sip of the tea, looking up at the interruption.

"I would appreciate some help, Felix. Shift watching. And no television. They'll crack eventually."

Felix sat down in a huff, sipping from his own cup.

"Come on." Mrs. Sadler went back to cooing at the screen.

"I can't save you if I don't know which on you are."

* * *

"This is never going to work." Alison huffed, putting on her recently stolen British Airport Security uniform.

"Yes it is. Nobody would wear this shade of blue voluntarily." Rachel huffed, adjusting her badge.

"Well, we just did. What if this happens all the time? What if the cool thing for the kids to do in England is dress up as Airport Security?"

Rachel, of course, was not even paying attention at this point. "Good heavens. It's an unnatural shade of blue. It's like a whole organization of people named 'people who are against ever having sex again' were chosen to invent a new color."

"Rachel, I need you to focus. We have to infiltrate, and find out where Cosima and Delphine are being held." Alison stopped, grabbing both sides of Rachel's head. "What do we do now? We can't just jump into a line and start using an x-ray machine."

"Oh Alison." Rachel said, showing her most evil, scheming grin, "Of course we can."

* * *

Cosima was growing increasingly bored, and the fact that she had just brought up their looming separation was causing her anxiety. Cosima never got anxious. Nervous, occasionally, but not anxious.

Apparently, it was the emotion the pot was covering up this whole time. And Cosima was _not_ paying attention to Delphine's verbal dissertation on food processor garlic mashed potatoes.

"What about if I look into options in France? Just to see if there are openings for an environmental sciences post. Oh! I could teach at a college or university…and also maybe learn French to make that happen." Cosima started to trail off on that one, realizing just how hard this might be.

"I am more sensitive than I look." Delphine answered abruptly, taking Cosima by surprise.

"Okay—so no teaching at a college then?"

"That's not what I'm talking about. I need you to know, if we're seriously talking about relocation, you are getting involved with someone who is sensitive. It doesn't look like it, but I am."

It was the most honest statement Cosima had ever heard.

"Okay." Was the small answer curled around Delphine's left side.

"Okay?" She said, looking up to make the eye contact she had been avoiding for the last sixty seconds.

Cosima let out an exhale. "I know you're sensitive. It's not something I don't know, but it's something I need to remember. Lik when you shut down and it looks like you're not showing me feelings, you're showing me that there _are_ feelings. And it doesn't matter if you and me agree on every issue, or if I'm a scientist and you're a lawyer, or if you're an R607 and I'm the worst spy to ever not actually become a spy, because at the end of the day, we're people who have feelings. I happen to think that matters—a whole, whole lot." Cosima took Delphine's hand, letting her words soak in.

"Okay." Delphine answered, inhaling Cosima's exhale. "It would actually be very easy for me to come to Canada. It would take time, but it would be easier for me to come to you."

Delphine's answer came in the form of lips crashing into one another.

* * *

Oh, Rachel and Alison were having fun indeed.

So much fun that finding Cosima and Delphine was no longer a priority.

What the other Airport Security agents didn't know was that because Rachel and Alison were so adept at traveling to and from many countries while sometimes concealing the remnants of their party activities, they were _very_ aware of all the potential hiding places one could have that wouldn't show up on an x-ray machine.

"Ma'am, I'm going to need you to take a step back while I check-" Alison took out a small pocket knife, which to the passenger's horror, she used to cut into the lining of her suitcase, "—this section right here." Alison pulled out a small bag of white pills.

The woman went white with terror.

Alison grinned. "We're going to have to confiscate these." Alison said, dropping them into the contraband bin that she had stashed her own purse in earlier to make sure she benefited from finding the goodies. Alison's purse was so full of baggies in a variety of colors that she wondered why they weren't pretending to be Airport Security every weekend.

"Sir, I'm afraid you're going to have to come with me. Unless you'd prefer a male to pat you down." Rachel had clearly been having her own fun in the next aisle over, disappearing into the private search room with traveler after traveler.

"No, you can do it." The very muscular gentleman answered a little too quickly.

Rachel threw a glance over at Alison, both grinning like the village idiots, sharing the exact same thought.

_Best fake job ever._

* * *

"How long do we have to watch them? I can't stand it anymore." Felix was rubbing his eyes, having had enough of 'his turn' to keep Mrs. S. company while Sarah was getting to go out and do who-knows-what with who-knows-who, and if he knew her like he did, probably also with who-knows-who's girlfriend, both at the same time.

"_And it doesn't matter if you and me agree on every issue, or if I'm a scientist and you're a lawyer, or if you're an R607 and I'm the worst spy to ever not actually become a spy, because at the end of the day, we're people who have feelings._"

"What did she just say?" Siobhan's ears perked up immediately, rewinding the video.

"I looooove you Cosima, blah blah blah, I would absolutely move to a foreign country that I've probably never been to for you, blah blah blah."

"Shhhhh." Siobhan replayed the clip, very clearly hearing who was part of R607 in the security room.

"Bingo."


	20. Unwanted Appointments

Mrs. Sadler slid a hot cup of tea across the table to Delphine, who slowly stirred in the milk and sugar available on the table, all the while not breaking eye contact with the older woman who insisted they speak immediately on a matter of grave importance.

It's not like French attorney had much of a choice. They were still technically in airport security holding, so it's not like there would be a true opportunity to decline. And at this point, she wanted some answers.

Delphine made a show of bringing the cup up to her lips, blowing gently, before slurping a sip, even making a little "ahhh" sound afterwards. To the untrained eye, she appeared to be just another woman drinking tea.

Unless you are Siobhan Sadler, who noticed that the liquid level in the cup didn't actually go down at all.

_Oh she's very well trained indeed. She probably wouldn't even accept water from someone unless she gathered it from the tap itself._

"Delphine. Do you really believe someone would drag you all this way to poison you?"

If the statement startled Delphine, it was buried below her cool exterior.

"Well, if not an elaborate murder attempt, why have I been dragged all this way?"

"You really have no idea, do you?"

"Theories are not facts. I am a lawyer, Mrs. Sadler. I do enjoy my facts."

"Fine, cutting right to the chase. I can appreciate that." Siobhan opened a black sidebag next to her chair, pulling out two unlabeled files. "I will be blunt for a moment. As an R607, you have been given the impression that you have control over your modification implants."

_Ah, of course_, Delphine thought. _It always comes back to that, doesn't it? I haven't used my technologies in years. _

From that point on Delphine was only half listening. She wasn't concerned, as she did technically have the ability to record video and audio through a neuro-implant, but only used the technology once.

She had been sent in to record a meeting between two corporations that was taking place in France, contracted out by the government to simply sit in the meeting as counsel, not say anything, and leave. After the assignment, she was showered with praise by many local officials—in secret, of course. However, she was never asked to use it again. She was surprised by how much buzz there was currently around the secret project, given how not exciting she had found it to be.

"Delphine, are you listening? They can turn on your implant at any time, _remotely_. You may not even know it was activated."

"What?" Delphine's head snapped up to meet the dark eyes across from her.

* * *

Alison sat staring down the two men sitting across from them in the bar, having procured a booth in a back corner. Alison tried not to act surprised when she noticed that the two young, skinny yakuza members clearly had full sleeve tattoos, visible when they moved their arms and their shirt sleeves pulled up, startling Alison as she was greeted with a full dragon head on the arm directly across from her.

The man noticed Alison staring, making a show of letting the sleeve ride up farther along, giving more of a view.

She said nothing, as Rachel continued to speak into her cell phone in Italian. After all, it would be rude to speak when someone's trying to land a deal. Alison was learning just how far Rachel took her "diplomatic" position. In truth, she was even more draw to Rachel than ever before.

"Four kilos." Rachel said to the two Asian men, choosing her words carefully in case they were overheard. She never spoke more than three or four words a sentence when in public with mafia members.

One man shook his head. "Six."

Rachel nodded, and began speaking back into the cell phone. Alison felt quite useless, and the negotiation was taking Rachel quite awhile.

Who knew that moving some basic cocaine blocks involved so much talk?

"So…Kaito, is it? I just love that dragon. Really. Is it new?" Kaito laughed in amusement.

"Not new, but I did have the color enhanced. Do you like it?"

"I do. And what is it eating?"

"A small child." Kaito said casually, unbuttoning the sleeve to formally roll it up and show the attractive Canadian woman.

"A small—oh. Ah...well, that's just lovely. And the colors are so bright! I'd imagine it's like veal for a dragon." Alison stuttered out, trying to fake not being completely frightened.

"Okay, they agreed to six for that price. We're taking ten percent for using our airport jobs to facilitate. We leave for Italy in five hours. We will meet you at Haneda Airport in thirty-three hours. You leave in two hours, so I'd suggest you go back to your hotel and check out so you can enjoy your head start."

* * *

Cosima was so happy to finally be out of the airport. She stepped outside, breathing in the fresh air, holding the address of the bar where Mrs. S. told her to go meet Delphine. She didn't even care that it was beginning to drizzle, it was still fresh air.

As instructed, she slide across the table from Delphine, keeping her sunglasses on even though they were inside. She noticed Delphine did the same, as she was warned she would.

"Can you tell me please what's going on? You disappeared with Siobhan Sadler of all people for what felt like forever, then I'm just tossed outside and told to come find you? Do we have any idea what is going on at all?"

Delphine couldn't tell if Cosima was angry or scared. She imagined she was probably starting to get cranky from the combination of taking a long flight, then being locked up for hours, not having a proper meal, really needing a nap…none of this was particularly pleasant.

"Cosima, Mrs. Sadler explained some things to me that I need to take into consideration." Cosima nodded, ready to listen, no matter how tired she was. "I already told you that I am—well, was part of the R607 project."

"Right. The body enhancements."

"Yes, that. Exactly. I am able to record video through my own eyes and audio through my own ears. I've only ever used it once, but I'm sure if I turned it on it would still work."

Cosima seemed to not be surprised at all. Nothing really surprised her anymore.

"So…how do you turn it on?"

"The button is very tiny in the brow of my nose, right about where the nose meets the forehead." Delphine pointed to the spot. "It also turns on the audio."

Cosima trusted Delphine to know she was telling the truth, and if Delphine was saying she didn't ever use her ability, she believed her.

"I can record and play it back for myself with my eyes closed, or the scientists can extract the recording through a sleep mask they put on my eyes when it's on playback."

"Okay. So you have this—enhancement, but why are we wearing sunglasses?"

"Mrs. S. believes the government is turning people's recording ability on via satellite. I could be turned on remotely at any time. I would know—the only time I ever used the implant I could feel that it was running. I would feel it, but from what she told me, I wouldn't be able to turn it off. I want to cover as much of my sight, and your identity, until I explore my options."

Cosima grabbed Delphine's hand from across the table.

"Options?"

"Yes. It may be possible to remove the device surgically. Or I can have it further enhanced to block out satellite control. Mrs. S. gave me some information to review and think it over. I'm not sure yet, but I do agree with her that it is important that I do something. I can't just be used whenever the government wants to use me as a glorified CCTV camera. I don't like that my life can just start being recorded remotely whenever they want."

Cosima squeezed Delphine's hand. If anything, she would make sure that whatever Delphine's decision was, she was going to be by her side.


	21. Is The Past Ever In The Past?

Four kilos of cocaine, a duffle bag full of AK-47 replacement parts, three members of the Yakuza from the global watch list, and one advanced DVD copy of _Sing_ with director commentary later, and Alison and Rachel were about ready for a break.

"I feel like a glorified UPS driver. This isn't even fun anymore." Alison stopped the DVD in their plush hotel room back in London. "How long could it possibly take to remove an itty, bitty little implant?"

Rachel sighed, also getting bored. The last week of criminal activities were usually their cure for months of bureaucratic boredom, and now the distractions themselves had become boring.

"Let's go back." Alison said, with Rachel knowing full well what she meant.

Give up the escape. Go back to their government posts. Turn in the source material. Spend ten months desk jockeying until the opportunity for a trip turns up, and then run amuck for a month across the globe.

It was getting less and less fulfilling each time, even though their arrangement allowed them ample salaries to do with as they pleased, as well as the ability to engage in nearly any activity they would so choose short of murder with nearly zero repercussions.

It was fun at first. So much fun—exciting, especially for the generally fearless pair. And now, the globe-trotting was as tiring as the desk job.

Something had to change.

* * *

Delphine hadn't quite recovered from the second surgery, and although she was assured it was minor, the fact that each time they performed it they had to sedate her and then insert the surgical instruments up her nasal cavity led to an unpleasant wake-up experience, even with the pain killers.

However, she had recovered enough to be blindingly angry at the news a second time.

"What do you mean, you still can't find it? How hard can it be? I have a micro-movie studio implanted up there!"

Cosima hung back behind the doctors, knowing full well she was not going to be able to calm Delphine down, preferring to wait out the storm.

"We're sorry, Ms. Cormier. You have to understand it doesn't show up on the scans. We're basically going in blind based on your descriptions of where you felt the chip activate. Even when we use the micro-cam, we don't see it." The doctor seemed genuinely sorry, but knew to keep his distance from the irate woman.

"Delphine," Mrs. Sadler intervened, "are you one-hundred and twenty percent certain that you were implanted with the R607 chip?" The forceful Irishwoman was uncharacteristically gentle in her approach.

"Yes. This isn't a gray area. I went in for a surgery. They taught me how to turn it on. I used it, and they took me in for data extraction. Then I never used it again."

"And you've never felt it activate since?" Mrs. S. fished, having had very concrete evidence presented to her months before orchestrating the conference that the R607 chips were indeed being activated by remote satellite whenever the American, Canadian, U.K., French, German, and Norwegian governments requested it. Several other countries knew of the project and would buy information from the primary governments of ownership, creating a global network if involuntary spies.

"No, never. It's not a feeling you would forget."

"Think very carefully, Delphine. Did they possibly remove it after extracting the recording from the one time you did activate?"

Delphine's knee-jerk reaction was to bark "No!" and continue huffing, but she did take the time to review the extraction process.

A brightly-lit room, with a reclining chair not unlike visiting a dentist. A heavy pair of goggles that to her had looked like ordinary virtual reality head gear placed over the eyes. Then the feeling of a tight pinch at the bridge of the nose, followed by dizziness and ringing in the ears. After ten seconds or so, the goggles were removed, immediately ending the spinning feeling.

No physical marks of an incision. No evidence that anything had been implanted or removed. And certainly nothing inserted up the nasal cavity.

"I am sure. I was awake for the entire thing, even though I didn't feel well."

Siobhan sighed. She believed that Delphine was a perfect candidate for the program, given her expertise in certain areas, who her job would gravitate her towards, and her known preference for one-on-one or small group meetings rather than being placed in front of a large crowd. But the absence of a chip was making it difficult to believe.

"What about the other option?" Cosima chimed in from the background. "You said you had the option of removal, or enhancing to block out any activation signal. What about the second option?"

"How are they supposed to do that if they don't even know where it is in my body?" Dephine's mind started to race. What if the chip had somehow travelled deeper into her brain? What if it was so high technology that it couldn't be seen even with a microscopic camera, and would never be identifiable?

"And it's never been used a second time after that first assignment. You're certain?" Mrs. S. started to sound more insistent.

"I am sure." Delphine said, lightly touching the bridge of her tender nose.

Cosima's wheels started spinning. Whatever information they could gather pertaining to the chip, they would need. Specifically, they would need the files from the original mission. Cosima walked over to Delphine's bedside, leaning over to lightly kiss the swollen nose.

"We'll figure it out. But exhausting you isn't going to help. How about we let you rest, and we'll talk more later?" Delphine nodded, the wheels in her head still spinning. She was also starting to realize that she would need to get information from the one time her chip was activated.

What was scarier was not knowing how much time she had to do so before she would be activated. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe never. It was the idea of living her life not knowing that was particularly upsetting.

Cosima sat across from Mrs. Sadler in the hospital cafeteria, having the most awkward lunch of her lifetime.

The young environmental scientist couldn't help but eye the woman across from her. Mrs. Siobhan Sadler. _The _Siobhan Sadler. The woman who seemed to always have top-notch access to information, who always seemed to have her hand in the cookie-jar anytime there was anything of note occurring in the U.K. and sometimes even elsewhere. And yet nobody truly knew who she worked for.

But it was clear she was someone who had a lot of access, and a lot of power. And who seemed to not be interested in killing Cosima.

Probably.

Cosima decided she had no choice but to trust this woman. She didn't actually have a choice—it was either throw herself in with the wolves, or let Delphine live the rest of her life as either a slave to a microchip or in constant state of paranoia.

"How can we get access to the files on Delphine's first and only mission?"

Mrs. S. nodded at the woman.

"It seems we're on the same page."

Delphine considered the hospital line unsafe to use. She knew landlines were easy enough to tap, and who knows if Mrs. Sadler's sympathetic doctor was trustworthy and truly couldn't "find" the chip.

She had started secretly charging her cell phone, plugged in behind her bed as soon as Cosima and Mrs. Sadler left her to nap. Ten minutes was all she needed to charge up for one important phone call. Of course, she could have just asked Cosima, but she was trusting that Cosima was digging around for information from Siobhan, probably as she was dialing the memorized number on her phone. In general, she was really, really trusting that Cosima was completely on her side right now, and as sure about it as she said she was.

"Hello, Rachel? If you are still in England I could use some help."


End file.
